Apartment 102
by Live4Dance88
Summary: A college student desperate to find an affordable apartment takes her chances by living across from the rumored vampire living in Apartment 102. Is he really the bad guy everyone makes him out to be, or his he just a loney man looking for a friend? VinOC
1. Hello Neighbor

Disclaimer: Don't own any FFVII characters. This is a completely AU story set in 2007 here in the US.

**Apartment 102**

**Hello Neighbor**

'Summer Ridge Apartments' the white letters on the dark grey building read. I got out of my red 2000 Ford Escort and proceeded up the S shaped sidewalk. I pushed open the glass door and stepped inside the main office. This was a small building set aside from the line of apartments that stretched down the street. There were only apartments on the first and second floors it seemed and I prayed silently that I could find one on the second floor because the worse thing in the world would be to have to listen to someone stomp around above you.

An older man with obviously dyed black hair sat at a desk zoned out looking at his computer screen. I cleared my throat after standing at the desk for a few minutes. He snapped out of his daze and quickly asked. "May I help you ma'am?"

"I'm here to see about the apartments you have open." I nervously put a piece of my black hair behind my ear. My cell phone made a bleep noise alerting me of a new text message. It could only be my boyfriend Trace asking if I had found the place and if I was going to be able to afford it. I've never been much of an independent person. I would be lost without someone keeping up with me. I stared at the man almost in a daze as he went on explaining what was open and which apartments are more expensive and why.

"Eight hundred and fifty a month!" I cried out interrupting him. He looked up at me like I was crazy or something. I come from a small town. Our apartments run about four to five hundred a month and they are pretty decent apartments. I cleared my throat and asked in a calmer voice. "Do you have anything cheaper? I only need one bedroom and one bathroom anyway."

"Ah…apartments 101 through 107 are five fifty a month. The occupant living in 102 has formed quite the reputation in these apartments. Because of this no one is willing to rent them out, and those who have haven't lived there for long."

I blinked before staring at the man in confusion. "Um…is he a criminal?"

"No, he has no criminal record. There are rumors of him possibly being some kind of vampire." The man paused to stroke his beard and chuckle. "Quite foolish, isn't it? But its definitely affect the choice of apartments here."

I sighed and looked down at my pink and white cell phone. 'How's the apartment situation looking, sweetheart.' The text read. Instead of texting back I just called him. I held up my index finger to the black haired man and he nodded. I turned away from the desk and waited to hear Trace's voice over the line.

"Hello?"

"Hey yeah…the apartments here are way expensive for my financial situation, but there are some for five fifty a month…"

"That's not bad, babe." He cut in.

I put my hand on my hip and shifted my weight from one foot to the other. "Yeah, but get this he says no one will live there because of the man living in apartment 102. He's supposed to be some kind of vampire or something."

"Vampire? Come on babe, that aint true. I'd say get it."

∞∞∞

My friend Rena and I walked up and down the stairs carrying box after box into my new apartment. Apartment 104… right across from this mystery vampire guy. This was the third day of moving and I hadn't seen or heard a single sound come from over there.

"Geez Amaya, I didn't know you had so many freakin clothes." Rena complained as she sat another box down in my new bedroom. Yesterday and the day before were the days to do most of the interior decorating. My room was royal blue and lime green. The curtains were striped blue and green, there was a blue rug in front of my small dresser, and the bedspread was lime green with blue polka dots on it. I hung my clothes up in the small closet that kept getting smaller and smaller as I looked around at all the boxes of clothes.

My living room was of course Asian styled for when my parents come and visit me. They've accused me several times of abandoning my Asian culture by trying to westernize my life. We do live in the United States, however, and by their choice. I sat a picture of my mother, father, and I up on the TV. Aren't we such a happy family? I faked a smile to myself and turned away from the picture. I heard a scream from outside my room. I rushed to the door to find Rena sitting on the floor with a box of my things lying on the floor with its top open and contents spilled out on the floor. I looked up only to catch apartment 102's door shutting.

Rena scrambled to pick up my things and ran past me into my new apartment, I followed her. She ran a shaky hand through her short black hair. Rena, like me had also come from an Asian background.

"What did you see?" I asked as we both sat down on my hand-me-down off white couch. She gave me a look of warning before saying anything.

"Are you sure you want to live across from that? Even if it is cheaper here… Amaya, he's scary."

I laughed. "What does he look like?"

"He had long black hair that was all jaggedy, his eyes were glowing red, and he has a GOLD CLAW FOR A HAND!!" I quickly jumped closer to her on the couch and covered her mouth.

"Shut up before he hears you." I was well aware that my door was still wide open. She pried my hand off of her mouth and stood up. She crept towards the door and quickly slammed it shut.

I carried the box of all my hair products, body washes, etc off to my bathroom and organized it all in the cabinet under the sink and behind the mirror. Tonight would be the first night I actually stayed here alone. After Rena's description of my new neighbor I was starting to get cold feet.

∞∞

I pulled the covers up over my head and tried my hardest to get to sleep.

_..glowing red eyes...and a GOLD CLAW for a hand!!_

I sat straight up in my bed and turned the light on. I slowly pulled back the covers revealing my silk black shorts and matching tank top. My hair was pulled up on top of my head in a messy bun. I walked out of my room and quickly scanned the rest of my small apartment. I then crept towards the door in the dark living room and peeked through the peep hole. I pressed my ear against the door and tried to listen and see if I could hear anything, but there wasn't a sound. I sighed and started to feel ridiculous about how scared I was. Just then I heard a door open and quickly shut. I ran to my door and snatched it open. I stuck my head out into the hallway only to catch a dark image turning the corner at the end. Part of me wanted to run down the hall and turn the corner to catch him, but the other terrified part of me pulled me back into that apartment and locked the door.

My first day of classes tomorrow is going to be hell… I thought to myself as I read the blue numbers of my digital alarm clock. I'm going to have to wake up in four hours…

∞∞

"Psst! Amaya!" Rena poked me in the arm with her pencil sending me into an upright position in my chair. I'm so tired… The professor carried on with his lecture not even noticing I had passed out on my desk. I tried to pick up where he was in my notes, but lost him and fell asleep again.

"Geez Maya, are you ok?" Rena asked as we walked passed the court yard of the college campus. A guy with crazy long hair and ripped up jeans skated by us on a skate board.

"Yeah, I just didn't get much sleep last night. You had me pretty freaked after your description of my neighbor." I tugged at my short skirt as I watched a guy walk past me licking his lips.

"I wasn't exaggerating. Although I only screamed because his door shot open so fast and he was just like…there like bam!"

I laughed as I pushed the door open to the cafeteria. Rena and I saw no need to leave the campus since our next class was in an hour. With the traffic it would take an hour to get to the nearest restaurant and back. The food here seemed good enough. I got a big slice of pepperoni pizza while Rena settled for a hot dog and a bag of chips.

∞∞

I got home that night at around seven thirty. I walked over to the main office to speak with the manager of the apartments again about my neighbor. If I'm going to get any sleep at all I've got to find out more about him.

To my surprise, an older woman sat at the desk instead of the man with dyed black hair. She smiled sweetly before asking if she could help me. I smiled back.

"Uh…I just wanted to ask a few more questions about the man living in apartment 102." I took a seat on the couch in the room as the older woman came out from behind the desk.

"Ah… the girl George told me about." She muttered to herself. "Oh well Mr. Valentine is a rumored vampire. A few people have said they've seen him fly out of his window in a form of some kind of huge bat like creature with wings."

"Have you ever met him?" My curiosity took a huge leap upon hearing more about him.

"On very few occasions. He usually slips his rent under the door the night before its due date so George and I never see get to see him. I met him many many years ago when he first moved here. It has been more than twenty years I'd say. He was leaving as I was coming and I asked him how he liked it here and he replied with a 'hmph' and brushed past me. No one knows his story…" she let out a dreamy sigh and returned to her spot behind the desk.

"So he's like an older guy?"

"The last time a person said they saw him they said he appeared to be in his late twenties, but his birth date is 1947 which would make him sixty."

"My friend saw him yesterday…she said he had a gold claw for a hand…"

"Yes, dear, but I do believe that is only a gauntlet." She smiled at me again. I decided not to take up anymore of her time and take my leave. So it's Mr. Valentine…

∞∞

Three weeks flew by and I still hadn't seen or heard anything from this mysterious neighbor of apartment 102. I was starting to think this wasn't so bad. As long as I keep myself busy and stay gone all the time what are the odds that I will ever have to run into him? I'm only going to live here for two years anyway and then I'm guaranteed a spot at the company I've always dreamed of working for. Thanks to my Aunt…

I was on my way back to my apartment carrying a stack of book so tall I could barely see over them. I stopped by the library at the college and picked up a few books for my studying along with a few books on vampires which is how I accumulated such a load. As soon as I made it up the stairs and around the corner I picked up my pace as the corner of one of the books start to stab my arm painfully. All of a sudden I hit something that I could have sworn was a wall, but I knew I was in the middle of the hall that was impossible. My books flew out of my arms and scattered all over the floor. I bent down to pick them up without even looking at what had blocked my path. I then took note of two black, leather pointed shoes in front of me. I then noticed golden digits inches from mind on one of the vampire books. I swallowed hard before raising my eyes any further. Glowing red orbs met mine. My breath was caught in my throat and I couldn't find any words to say or the strength to move my hand. The golden claw grasped the book and took it out from underneath my hand. I watched those red eyes scan the cover briefly before picking up the rest of my books and putting them in a pile for me. I sat on the floor still in a trance. I was frozen with fear, shock, and I suddenly had a weird feeling of sympathy for this man. He was obviously not the bad guy everyone was trying to make him out to be. He just picked up all my books for me although it was me who ran into him.

"Th...th...Thank you." I finally managed as we both stood and faced each other. He did have long black slightly messy hair. He wore a black bandana that covered his forehead and came down to his eyebrows. It was the end of the summer and still quite hot, yet he wore a long sleeved black shirt and black pants with a chain hanging from them. He looked down at the books and back at me suspiciously. His eyebrows lowered and he glared at me with those red orbs that I was sure would haunt me for the rest of my time living here. Great! Now he knows I think he's a vampire! That's what he is isn't he? Before I could think of anything else to say he turned and put his ungloved hand on his door handle.

"Wait!" I yelled, but as soon as I turned around I saw the door closing and heard the click of him locking it. I unlocked my door and opened it before trying to pick up the stack of books again. Once I was safely inside of my apartment will all my books intact. I plopped down on the couch and briefly reflected over what just happened. He wasn't _that_ scary. And yeah…sixty years old?! I think not. Mr. Valentine didn't look a day over twenty-five or six. After sitting there thinking for a while, I made up my mind that I should probably be reading the books for my classes. I read for a solid hour before getting a phone call from Trace.

After talking with him for and hour and a half over what I should do to feel more comfortable in my apartment. His only words of comfort were: "If he does anything to ya babe, I'll beat his ass."

This man may have been rather slim, but he was over six feet tall. Trace stood at a slightly chubby 5'8. Once I got off the phone with Trace I decided to take a more peaceful approach. I dug around in my boxes of odds and ends that I hadn't found places for yet and found some post its. I wrote a simple note that read:

_Mr. Valentine,_

_I guess you know you've got yourself a new neighbor. My name is Amaya Arai. Nice to meet you._

I quietly opened my door and tip toed across the hall and gently stuck the hot pink post it on Mr. Valentine's door. People don't consider how lonely a person like him must be. I've been accused of being 'too kind' in the past. I silently prayed that this effort of getting to know my neighbor wouldn't turn out to be another bad decision of where I spread my kindness.


	2. Unfriendly Beginnings

**Apartment 102**

**Unfriendly Beginnings**

I stood in the bathroom looking at myself in the mirror as I curled my hair. I teased and sprayed until I stood in a cloud of hairspray. I then waved my hands around to clear the air until I could see myself clearly in the mirror again before I finished putting on my make up. I darkened my eyebrows a bit with eyeliner, blushed my cheeks, lengthened my eyelashes and put some lip gloss on. Rena and I were set on trying out a new club downtown for college students. I was just going to dance, but Rena was on a mission to find her a man.

I heard someone beating my door down as I walked down my short hallway. "Coming!" I jogged across the living room and snatched the door open.

"Woo hoo! Have you been tanning? You look awfully dark." Rena fluffed up her neck length black hair playfully as she walked in the door. "Someone stuck a post it to your door." She pointed her finger over her shoulder at the door behind her. She really was trying to get a man tonight. She wore a revealing black top and a short jean skirt with black high heel shoes that laced up her calves. I wore a simple green, pink, and white tube top with a white skirt that came a few inches above my knees. My white flip flops only had a tiny heel.

Would he really…. I looked at my door and saw the identical note that I had left on his door. I sighed with disappointment. Why would he even bother giving it back? That's almost like a slap in the face. I was only trying to be friendly. I crumpled up the pink piece of paper and threw it in the trash can beside the door.

"It's nothing. Let's go! I'm ready to have fun." As soon as I said that Rena was out the door and halfway down the hall. I jogged to keep up with her as we made our way to her car. Her parents bought her a brand new sporty black convertible to go off to college in. We hopped into her new car and were off

∞∞

The walk to my apartment from the parking lot at night was scary. I heard strange noises and dogs barking. Some guy passed me on the sidewalk and I was worried to death that he was going to snatch my purse from me or something. I was relieved just to get into the building. My feet were killing me and I thought I was going to die after walking the flight of stairs to the second floor. I turned the corner and started down the hall towards my apartment. At the other end of the hall were a huge window and two couches. It was decorated with a portrait on one wall and a good sized plant in the corner. There was a clear view of the moon out of that huge window. I could recognize the man sitting on the couch all the way from the end of the hall by the way the moonlight reflected off of his gauntlet. Mr. Valentine…

What is he doing sitting out here at two in the morning?! I slowed my pace, not really wanting to go any closer. My door was less than six feet away from the couch he sat on. Our two apartments were the last ones at the end of the hall. Once I got within a twelve foot range of where he sat, his head turned sharply towards me and I stopped in my tracks.

"…hi." I squeaked out. He looked at me with an expression that I couldn't read. I took a few more steps towards him. "I didn't expect anyone to be out here this late…" I laughed nervously and turned towards my door. I reached into my purse and looked for my key. How come it's like pitch black down here? I've been in the other halls and they were lit by dim lights in the ceilings. I looked up and noticed there where no lights like that down here. I'm sure Mr. Valentine prefers it this way, but it made it nearly impossible to see anything. Not to mention I was having trouble focusing on the task at hand with crimson eyes piercing through me mercilessly. I finally found those damn keys only to drop them on the floor.

"Shit…" I muttered as I bent to pick them up. As soon as I bent down Mr. Valentine stood and walked towards his door. I stood and turned around quickly and stared at the back of him.

"Did you read my note?" My question floated in the air unanswered. Before I could say anything else Mr. Valentine was in his apartment, door shut, locked and all. I let out a deep sigh and returned to my own. It was past two in the morning after all.

∞∞

Another week flew by and I was starting to figure out just how much work came along with going to college. My parents took care of the rent, so I didn't have to work. However, by taking on nineteen credit hours I buried myself alive in homework to study.

I looked over at my digital clock by my bed. There were textbooks, notebooks, a lap top, and tons of papers scattered all over my bed. It was 1:50 in the morning. I looked around the room and randomly set my eyes on the laundry basket that was overflowing with dirty laundry. I hadn't done a single load of laundry since I moved here. I slowly got out of bed, still dressed in the pair of comfortable grey capris and white tank top that I had been wearing all day. I pulled my hair out of its messy bun and shook it out around my shoulders. It looked like I was going to be doing some laundry right about now because who knows when I'll get another minute to do it. I took a peek in my closet and decided that that was definitely gonna have to be the task at hand. I groaned out loud looking at all the laundry. It was going to take two trips just to get all the clothes there. I put all the white clothes in a basket and carried them out of my room. I grabbed my keys and the key to the laundry room and was off. I grabbed my cell phone too, because I was probably going to be spending a long time down there.

Once I got to the laundry room, I realized the door was already unlocked. That made me hesitate on going in there, but I figured I'd stop wasting time and just do it so I walked in. I flipped on the light switch and took a quick glance around the room before completely walking in. As soon as I got about five feet away from the door the lights when out again. It wasn't pitch black in there by any means. Lights from the soda and candy machines gave the room a dim lighting. I spun around to see what had caused the sudden darkness. Mr. Valentine…

He stood there wearing a pair of black pajama pants, black slippers, and a black T-shirt. He still wore what that lady called his gauntlet, and a bandana around his head. His skin looked so pale in the dim light.

"What are you doing here?" His deep voice echoed through the empty laundry room. I looked around the room trying to think of an excuse. Then it hit me… I live here too damnit. What does he mean what am I doing here?! I again took a more peaceful route rather than telling him off like I wanted to at the moment.

"I'm doing laundry." I said before smiling just as sweetly as possible. His eyebrows lowered as he gave me an unfriendly look. "It's rather late…again…and I didn't expect anyone to be here." I couldn't hold eye contact with those fiery red orbs any longer and moved my glance to the empty laundry basket sitting on one of the driers not too far down from where mine sat. When Mr. Valentine didn't reply quickly enough, I turned my back to him and loaded my white clothes into a washer and set the settings.

"I prefer to be alone…" I heard the soft shuffle of his slippers as he approached me. He didn't come any closer than three feet.

"Is that so? Is that why you're scaring off all you're neighbors and no one will live near you? Is that how you really want it?" The questions left my mouth before I could even think. I didn't even have to look to know Mr. Valentine was glaring at me again.

"…that is why I am here so late." He finished, ignoring my questions. I can play the ignore game too. I didn't look at him as he stood there, arms crossed. And here I was thinking he was probably a nice guy, shunned by society because of some cruel rumors. With this attitude he deserves to have rumors spread about him. Speaking of rumors…

I let a few minutes pass to let him think I was ignoring his presence before asking. "So are you…what they say…a vampire?"

I looked up at him. His lips twitched downwards and he shook his head no. His movement was so light I barely noticed it and had to ask myself again. Was that a no, or did he nod?

Another wave of silence fell over the room. I was so lost in my daze, I didn't notice him walk across the room and take a seat at one of the three booths that were lined up against the wall. I contemplated doing the same, but decided I didn't want to be glared at anymore so I stayed put, leaning against the washer. So he's not a vampire, just a mean prick that… Wait… His birth date… Now that I've gotten a good look at his face I knew there was no chance this man was sixty. I decided not to ask because I didn't feel like being ignored either.

∞∞

The next day was Friday and I thanked God I only had one class and it wasn't until 1:00 PM so I didn't have to wake up early. In fact I woke up around noon. My mother was coming to visit at around three so I had to make sure the apartment was cleaned up nicely or she'd be nagging me while trying to clean it herself. She had called me early in the day to warn me that my father's health had been failing. He has been battling diabetes and kidney troubles for years. He has even been on dialysis for over six years. But somehow every time we go through this 'Amaya, you know your father situation is not looking good', he manages to pull through.

As I was pulling up to the apartments in my car, I saw my mom two cars behind me. It was only a little after two thirty. But of course I should have expected her to try and be early. She probably calls herself trying to sneak up on me before I could clean up so she could see how I was really living which wasn't all that bad.

"Ama chan!" she cried out as she walked up to me. She put her hands on my shoulders and looked me over as if she hadn't seen me in years. I rolled my eyes.

"Please, wait until we get inside ma..."

"Nani yo!" she waved her hand carelessly in the air. "You are my daughter. I am glad to see you. You not living at home is hard for papa and me." We started walking up the sidewalk towards the apartments.

"How is dad, by the way?"

"Not so good." She lowered her head and was quiet for a few minutes before continuing. "Amaya, they don't think he's going to make it this time."

Those words struck me like a knife to my heart. My father is what kept this dysfunctional family together. He was there to break up the fights; he was there to fix the problems. He even stuck by the family and worked things out with my mother, even after she had an affair. He worked hard holding down two full time jobs when times got rough and my mother felt that she was too good to work in order to help the financial situation. Once inside my apartment I threw myself on the sofa.

"Are you sure?" was all I could ask. "You know we've been through this before." Two Christmases ago my father was very sick in the hospital and the doctors told us he might not make it through the weekend. But on Christmas day all of a sudden he got better. He even got to come home and spend Christmas with us and lived on for two more years! He's not dying… He's gonna make it this time like he always does.

"It's different this time. I feel it." My mom put her hand over her heart. "I think you should spend this weekend at home."

I nodded. Then I thought. Oh…I have a very important package coming in the mail. I pulled out my cell phone.

"Yeah Trace? Can you come stay in my apartment while I'm gone?"

"Babe…I'm sorry. You know I can't come down there." Came his sorry excuse. Trace lived in a town that was only and hour and a half away from here and went to college there. I sighed loudly.

"My father might be dying and I have to go home this weekend. But my new TV is supposed to be coming this weekend. They're gonna come deliver it straight to my apartment."

"I've got to work this weekend."

"Fine." I hung up on him without even saying goodbye. I didn't want to bother Rena with this because I knew for a fact she would be working this weekend and we both are loaded down with homework. I know this because we are in all of the same classes.

"Dou shita no?" My mother leaned towards me.

"I'm expecting a delivery this weekend and I don't know who to ask to pick it up for me."

"Isn't there someone living across from you? I'm sure they would have no problem watching for it."

I brought a hand to my forehead. I can't just ask Mr. Valentine that! He'd either ignore me when I knocked on his door or slam it in my face, or listen to what I have to say and just glare at me. My mom stood suddenly.

"I'll go ask them…" I shot up and blocked her path.

"I can do it later…" I'd wait until later and see if I could find him standing around somewhere in the middle of the night. That would save me from having to actually knock on his door. I shuddered at the thought of doing that. If he's out all night he probably sleeps during the day anyways and if I wake him from sleeping he'll probably be in an even worse mood.

Asking Mr. Valentine for a favor…psh… Tonight's going to be interesting.


	3. Day and Night

**Apartment 102**

**Day and Night**

I waited until about one in the morning to go out looking for Mr. Valentine. I had meant to leave by eleven, but it took two hours for me to even gather up the nerve to actually go looking for him. I left my apartment wearing white pajama pants with red lips all over them and a red tank top. I pulled my hair back into a low ponytail that reached just above my bra line on my back.

I closed my eyes and walked out of my apartment closing the door quietly behind me. I opened them slowly and took a quick glance at the sofas to see if Mr. Valentine was sitting there. I looked at the empty couches that appeared to be a blue color under the moonlight while their actual color was a grayish purple. I let out a heavy sigh and walked down the hallway. There was a pin ball machine and some other games in the lobby so maybe he was hanging out there. I powered walked down the hall, around the corner, down the stairs, and through another hallway until I came out to the door of the lobby. Of course it's locked. I slapped my forehead for not thinking of that.

After walking down some of the other hallways empty hallways and even checking inside the fitness room, I decided to take a walk around outside. I walked passed the empty pool, the tennis court, and the fountain that was in the middle of everything. I took a closer look at the fountain and realized there was someone sitting on the other side. I slowly walked up to the opposite side and crept around it until I was caught by a pair of crimson orbs.

"….uh…" I can't do this… Mr. Valentine didn't move. It was completely silent outside except for the crickets and locusts. He really does look scary out here in the darkness. His eyes really did seem to put off a red glow through the pieces of ebony hair that partially covered them. He wore a black long sleeved shirt and black pants along with the oddest looking gold boots that shined in the moonlight. His pale lips seemed to be permanently turned down in a frown.

"If you have nothing important to say, I prefer you leave." He spoke in such a deep voice. I guess I better start talking before he makes me leave.

"I uh…" It was as if realization of what was about to happen had finally hit me. My throat tightened as I tried to hold back my emotions. I cleared it and tried to speak again. "I need to go back to my hometown this weekend…for a family emergency…"

"Do not burden me with your problems; I have enough of my own." He crossed his arms over his chest. His shiny gauntlet was on top shining brightly. I almost wanted to turn around and run away but I had to get it out.

"Look, I know you could care less, but my father is dying and I have to leave. I have a new TV that's supposed to be delivered either Saturday or Sunday possibly as late as Tuesday, and I just need someone to make sure it gets into my apartment. My boyfriend can't do it and neither can my best friend, so I thought that since you live right across the hall that when it came you could just take it into your apartment until I come back." A tear slid down my cheek. I wiped it away hoping Mr. Valentine didn't notice, but as soon as I did another one fell and another until I was fully sobbing. "Sorry I bothered you, never mind I'll just…"

"Notify them first. They will not just hand it over to me." He spoke suddenly not even looking in my direction.

"Can you give me your name and number then?"

"I will post it to your door when I return to that area." He again didn't look at me. I was beginning to think maybe he was just saying he'd do it just to get rid of me. But I didn't want to bother him anymore than I already had so I nodded and left. Great time to have a breakdown… I continued to wipe the tears away as I turned away from him. I felt his eyes follow me as I walked away, but I didn't turn and give him another glance.

∞∞

I woke up around eight o'clock the next morning and started packing four days worth of clothes into a suitcase. I lived five hours away from here so it was going to be a long drive. I then remembered what Mr. Valentine said about posting his name and number on my door. I literally ran into the front room and snatched the door open. He lied to me…

Just when my anger was about to flare up the door behind me opened. Mr. Valentine stood in the open doorway wearing a sinister looking black robe that covered from his feet all the way up to his lips. He held out a folded up piece of paper between his two fingers. I took it with an unsteady hand and quietly thanked him. He turned around and shut his door without a word. Had he actually hung around his living room waiting to hear me come outside just to give me that? I then took under consideration he probably didn't want anyone knowing his phone number and probably not even his first name.

Vincent…

Vincent Valentine. That name had a pretty cool ring to it. A lot of people said that to me about the name Amaya Arai. But Vincent Valentine sounded way cooler. I laughed to myself.

∞∞

Seeing my father in the state that he was in caused me the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I shed the most tears that I had ever in those four days. My father Tsutomu Arai died the second day I was there. My mother _did_ say it didn't look good this time. But his situation had never looked good and he always pulled through. However, when I saw him lying in that hospital bed, his face swollen from all the fluid that was built up on him, his arms bruised up from all the shots they had given him. I knew in that moment that he wasn't going to make it this time.

The ride home was hard. All I wanted to do was stay with my family and help them make it through this. I needed them to help me through this, but missing another day of class was going to insure my failure in college. My father's wish for me was to make it through college and have a better job than a sushi maker in a low class restaurant. He wanted to see me driving a BMW and living in a big house. My brothers all failed him. We are all smart kids. According to the Americans here all Asian kids are smart and all of us were in school, but the motivation just wasn't there. I wasn't going to disappoint my father like they had.

I called Rena when I was close enough to the city and told her to meet me at my apartment so she could help get me caught up on the school work. It slipped my mind that she actually had to work that night so she let me know she'd drop off all her notes in front of my door for me. Trace called my cell phone three times, but I refused to answer. He couldn't even be there for me while my father was dying. Work was more important to him.

I struggled pulling my heavy suitcase up the stairs. When I finally got to my door I noticed the three notebooks sitting in front of it just like Rena promised. I put them under my arm pit and unlocked my apartment. This place had actually felt like home to me finally. There for a while it always seemed like I was in a hotel or something. I propped my suitcase up against the wall by the door and tossed the notebooks on my couch. Time to see if Vincent Valentine had really come through.

I hesitated for a second then finally knocked on his door. I waited for a little while before the door opened.

"Hi…did my TV come?"

He left his door wide open as he walked back into his apartment. I didn't want to intrude so I stayed outside. My door was still wide open as well. I couldn't help be a little nosy and peek inside just to see how this man was living. It was so dark in there I could hardly see anything. Even the furniture was black. There were trash bags over the windows. What is wrong with him? Vincent pushed the box through the door and handed me the receipt the delivery man gave him.

"Thank you so much…I…"

"It was nothing. I do not recommend you tell anyone of this."

"Oh yeah because you want to keep your bad guy reputation, right?" I laughed and bent down to push the TV closer to my door.

He didn't move from his doorway and looked as if he wanted to say something else. He still wore that permanent frown even though he didn't put off any hostile vibes at the moment. His clothes were all black again except for his white socks. I smirked a little upon seeing that.

He opened his mouth but closed it just as fast.

"Can you play Mr. Nice Guy for a few more minutes and help me hook this thing up to my DVD player and stuff?"

"I'm not sure I can do that." I shrugged at this. Trace would eventually come around and do it. He was an electrical whiz.

"By the way Vincent Valentine is a really cool name."

He grunted in response. It then just hit me that this guy has a day and night personality. In the daylight, he's not all that mean. He's not even that scary looking. I remembered the first time I saw him. It was during the day and he helped me pick up my books although it was me that was at fault running into him. The nighttime Vincent would have ignored my presence completely and quite possibly could have stepped on the books as he walked by.

He met eyes with me for a brief moment then looked down at the floor as he spoke.

"You have my sympathy for the loss of your father." With that he quickly made his way into his apartment and shut the door.

I stood there smiling at his closed door for a while. He's not a bad guy at all. And he's not even a vampire. I decided that I should probably return the favor he did for me. I pushed the TV into my apartment and shut the door. I had a tiny twelve inch TV sitting on the table that was meant for a slightly bigger TV right now so there was no rush in getting this one opened and hooked up. It was Trace's idea that I got a bigger one. Mainly so he could play his video games on it whenever he decided to come stay here.

One of the only good memories my mom and I share is cooking together. Because of all that time spent, I have become quite the little chef if I do say so myself. I hope Vincent Valentine has a sweet tooth because this is gonna be one sweet cake. I sat Rena's notebooks up on the counter while I started on the cake. While whipping the topping of the cake with my mixer I read over the notes Rena had taken in our General Biology class. I cursed as some of the mixture flew out of the bowl and landed on her notebook. I wiped it off with my finger, then licked my index finger clean.

"Mmm!"

∞∞

The cake I made requires a night of refrigeration so the next morning as I woke up and got ready to take it over to Vincent before I went to class. My class today was at ten o'clock so I left at around nine. I left my hair straight down and wore a simple pair of jean capris and white Pirates of the Caribbean T-shirt. I held the cake in both hands, my bag with all my books in it was hanging on my shoulder. I took one hand off the bottom of the plate and knocked on the door. I looked down at the pure white cake. I was ready to bite into it myself. The inside was full of fruits and even a bit of caramel. There was one single cherry on the top of the cake.

While I was busy admiring the cake I didn't notice Vincent crack his door open to peek outside. I heard him sigh when he saw just who it was.

"What now?" He squinted his eyes in the light of the hallway. I must have woke him because he looked awfully rough this morning. I took a good look at him. Mr. Vincent Valentine is not really threatening at all. The fear I had previously had for him faded away and I smiled up at his tall frame. Even though he was leaned up against the door frame he was still quite a bit taller than I.

"Douzo." I said handing him the cake with both hands. He took it with both hands and bowed his head. Has he been to Japan or something?

"You shouldn't have done this. I didn't need anything in return. I do not deserve such kindness."

"Oh sure you do, neighbor. And not only am I your neighbor, you've just made yourself a new friend." I smiled at him then looked passed him at the clock his wall. "I've gotta go to class now. If I see you around at night can I approach you without you trying to run me off?"

"No promises."

"But I just made you a cake." His face showed no emotion what so ever as he took his eyes from the cake to my face.

"I don't eat cake." He brought his eyes back down to the cake.

"Uh!"

He sighed and looked down at the tempting looking cake. I do believe I caught him biting back the urge to lick his lips. "If you want to bore yourself to death with my presence…I suppose its fine by me."

"Yay!" I clapped my hands together and turned to leave not before catching him raise his eyebrow in utter confusion at my excitement. I needed something to be excited about. The death of my father was still weighing heavily on my heart. I need some sort of distraction from this pain. And my boyfriend sure wasn't going to take off work to provide it for me. I then began to think maybe the fact that I had lost my father was the only reason Vincent was even tolerating me. I sighed loudly. Poor little girl, she's lost her daddy maybe I should pity her for a few days. It's the least my cruel self could do. I secretly hoped this wasn't the case. I was actually looking forward to maybe getting to know my neighbor. I still wanted to get to the bottom of how the hell he is sixty years old with the appearance of a person in their late twenties.


	4. Night Vision

**Apartment 102**

**Night Vision**

College is much harder than I thought it was going to be. I groaned out loud and threw myself down on my bed. At least I was finally caught up after missing classes. I opened one eye and glanced at the clock. It was already 3:00 A.M. I crawled under the covers and wrapped my arms around my soft body pillow.

Hmm…I wonder if Vincent liked the cake… Before I could even think about possibly taking a walk to see if I could find him I was fast asleep.

The next day was Thursday and I had one class in the morning at eight and a lab at six thirty until eight. I am not a science person at all so I dreaded the biology class and the lab…

∞∞

"So… have you heard from Trace lately?" Rena asked. We sat at a table for two in a Japanese restaurant eating sushi. We were two of the only people in the place at the time and it was so quite it made the soft music seem much louder.

"Nope. I don't think it's gonna work out between us. It's obvious that work is more important to him than us anyways. I mean I know he's got bills to pay and he's gotta save up for next year's tuition, but…"

"But what? Cut the guy some slack…"

"He couldn't even be there for me when my father died." I took a long sip of my lemonade. Rena nodded and set her chopsticks down neatly.

"Yeah…that was kinda…"

"Horrible? Yeah…"

"So has that creepy vampire guy tried to scare you off yet?" The waiter came by and poured more lemonade into both of our cups. Rena sent him a flirtatious grin and watched him walk away. I laughed at her.

"What girl? I'm single. So anyways…?"

"Oh no. Vincent's actually a pretty decent guy. He picked up my new TV for me while I was gone. Trace wouldn't even do _that_ for me."

"Wow really?!"

"Yeah."

∞∞

Later on that night after I came home from the dreaded lab, I proceeded down the hallway to find Vincent sitting on the couch reading a book. He sat where the moonlight shone the brightest. He didn't lift his eyes from the book even when I got closer. I stood in front of my door looking at him for a while, but he refused to acknowledge me. That must be a damn good book. I went inside my apartment just to throw my bag on the couch and kick my shoes off then came back outside.

"Hey neighbor." I said softly. I sat on the couch exactly across from his. His eyes flickered from the book to my face for a second.

"Is that a good book?" I knew I was annoying him by the way he sighed and furrowed his brows. I stood up and walked over to the window. I heard him turn a page.

"What's the book about?" I turned around and leaned against the window purposely blocking the moonlight that lit the pages of his book. It didn't seem to phase him one bit as he continued reading and ignoring me. I crossed my arms and scowled at him, but it went completely unnoticed by him. I then noticed something amazing. He wasn't wearing all black today. He wore a long sleeved red buttoned down shirt tucked into black dress pants and those hideous gold boots that I couldn't wait to tell him were so not 'in'. Neither was that gauntlet. I took my eyes from his apparel to his face. His brows were still furrowed in concentration as he read. His lips were of course turned down. This man probably hasn't smiled in years and his mouth has just gotten stuck that way. I noticed that he had hair on the sides of his face under the bandana instead of over it with the rest of his hair. My god he has so much freakin hair. I ran my hand through my own thin black hair. The only way I can get my hair to look like it actually has body is spending an hour teasing and spraying hair spray. A thought then occurred to me.

"Did you like my cake? I worked really hard on it." I took a seat next to him on the couch hoping this intrusion would grab his attention, but it failed.

"Hey! You said I could come talk to you if I saw you at night." I pouted and crossed my arms. He sighed and finally raised his eyes from the book, but didn't look at me.

"I do believe the deal was to not run you off. You may talk as much as your heart desires. It's fine by me."

"Uh! That's not what I meant! I meant talk as in actual conversation!" As soon as those words left my mouth he stood.

"Then I guess I do not agree to those terms."

"Hey wait! Ok…you don't have to talk." I reached out to him, but dared not touch him. He turned to me.

"You're in college, are you not? I'm sure you have studying to do." He continued towards his door and was gone. I sighed and leaned back against the couch. Yeah…I could study…

I went back inside my apartment and tried to call Trace, but after three calls and no answer it didn't seem like he wanted to talk much either. Rena was probably out with one of her guy friends or actually studying. I didn't feel like doing anything so I went to bed early.

∞∞

A week dragged by and it was now October. Midterm grades would be out soon and hopefully I pulled an A in all my classes or I will lose my grant for next semester. I dragged myself up the stairs as I made my way back to my apartment after a night of dancing with Rena. At least I didn't have any classes tomorrow because it was Saturday. I suddenly bumped into something at the top of the stairs and would have gone flying down them backwards if it had not been for a strong arm coming quickly around my waist and pulling me into a firm chest. I looked up and met eyes with my neighbor. He jerked his head back, apparently startled by the sudden closeness of our faces. He gently pushed me aside and continued quickly down the stairs.

"Hey wait!"

He stopped at the bottom. I walked back down the stairs. "If you're going for a walk…can I go with you?"

"Are you not tired from your festivities?"

I laughed quietly. "Is it that obvious where I've been?"

Vincent sent a quick look up and down my short frame. I was wearing a black skirt that was a bit shorter than I usually go for and a silvery gray halter top. My hair was pulled up in a ponytail with curls falling everywhere. I did have make up on, but it was so hot in that club I was sure it was all melted off. I held my thin black half jacket in my arm.

"No, I'm not that tired and I could use some fresh air after been cooped up in that hot, sticky, crowded club." My feet were killing me though. I winced as I took a step towards him.

He turned and started walking down the sidewalk. I struggled to keep up with him, but to my surprise we didn't walk very far before Vincent took a seat on a bench near the tennis court. I sat down and pulled my high heel shoes off. I rubbed my feet and winced when I saw what would soon be a blister on my heel.

I noticed Vincent staring at my feet with his eyebrows knitted together in a look that almost expressed confusion.

I laughed. "Yeah…you're probably wondering why in the world I put my poor feet through that torture." He raised his eyebrows slightly before looking out into the tennis court as if it were anything to look at. There was a big tree behind us and tall bushes on both sides of us. It was almost like a hiding place.

"Seems pointless." He spoke softly.

"Girls will go through a lot just to look cute. Even though it honestly is pointless…" I sighed. A breeze hit me and I instantly threw on my jacket. Vincent looked content in his odd looking red cloak and black outfit underneath. Honestly this guy has the weirdest style I've ever seen. It was silent for what seemed like a good twenty minutes before Vincent surprisingly broke the silence with an interesting question.

"Don't I…scare you?" He turned to me and slowly lifted his eyes from the ground to my face. I smiled at him and looked away.

"No, not at all. You're not even a vampire why would I be scared?" A stray black cat walked over to us and meowed loudly. I always hated the way their yellow eyes seemed to glow in the night. I bent forward and held my hand out for it to sniff. It sniffed it lightly before rubbing its head against it begging me to scratch it behind its ears. I did so and it began purring.

"What I am is far worse than a vampire…" he spoke in an even softer tone that I could barely hear. I pulled my hand away from the cat. My quick movement scared it off and it ran away into the bushes.

"What are you?"

Vincent looked ahead and didn't say anything. He then hung his head slightly. His hair fell forward so I could only see the tip of his nose from the side. His red cloak covered his mouth.

"I did speak to the manager about you before I moved in…"

Vincent lifted his head.

"The woman said something about you being born in 1947. That would make you like sixty, right? But you don't look sixty."

"Hm." Was all he replied with. He lowered his head again to the point where I couldn't even see the tip of his nose.

"Are you sixty?" Vincent froze and didn't say a word. I sighed and looked away from the dark man sitting next to me. "I know you don't know me that well, but you can trust me. Your secrets are safe with me. Who would I tell anyway?"

"What are my secrets to you?" he asked harshly.

"Uh…" My mouth dropped open but I couldn't think of what to say. Really what were they to me? What is it that's making me care about him so much suddenly?

"I'm not running you off, but if you don't mind I'd rather be alone."

I stood up quickly. "Ok…Good night."

He didn't reply but only sat there. As I walked past him I caught a glimpse of the pained look on his face. I shouldn't have tried to pry into his personal business. But I just wanna know how the hell he's sixty!? I retreated to my apartment and slept until noon the next day.

∞∞

At around three o'clock in the afternoon I heard a knock at my door. I was still in my pink and orange striped pajama pants and white T-shirt. I peeked through the peephole and say that it was the apartment's manager, George. I quickly answered the door.

He stepped inside. "Ah…so I see you must be staying."

"Yeah…I don't find it that bad living here at all. I haven't had a single problem."

"Yes I know. I saw you two walking together last night. What did you find out about him?" He whispered as if Vincent could hear him all the way from inside his room.

"Um…not much. He doesn't talk very much." I want Vincent to trust me so I'm not going to run back and tell anyone anything he's said to me.

"Oh. Well please, if you find out anything…" he pulled a card out of his pocket and handed it to me. "Call me at home."

"Ok." I nodded and smiled as he left my apartment. There's no way I'm doing that to Vincent. If he's been living here for twenty years or something and hasn't told these people anything about him then it's quite obvious he doesn't want them to know.

∞∞

As I stayed up later and later trying to catch Vincent at night. I was aware that I was starting to become nocturnal. It was amazing that my midterm grades were all As because I slept through class half the time. He still wouldn't hold an actual conversation with me, but I was beginning to find his presence quite comforting. Even if all we did was sit together in silence. I assumed Trace and I were over because he hadn't called me in over a week.

I sat on my couch at around seven o'clock with Vincent's number in my hand. I was going to take a huge step and ask him if he wanted to come out to dinner with me. I was already dressed in khaki pants and a long sleeved pink and white shirt. My hair was combed neatly and I even wore make up. I was well aware that Vincent was probably not a dateable person, but I still wanted to look decent.

I held up my cell phone and dialed the number. My thumb hovered over the call button for a good five minutes before I suddenly pressed down not giving myself a chance to back out. My heart pounded as I listened to the phone ring a few times.

"Hello?" His voice sounded even deeper over the phone. It was almost eerie in a way.

"This is Amaya. Um…I was just wondering…uh… are you busy?"

"No." he answered quickly. That's a good sign right? He was quick to tell me he wasn't busy therefore letting me know he had time. I shook my head and came out of my thinking zone.

"Do you want to maybe go to dinner with me?" That question squeaked out in a voice I didn't even recognize as my own. There was a long pause after my question.

"…to where?" came his late reply. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Umm… there's a Japanese restaurant not far from here…its really good…but I understand if you don't want to…" I slapped my forehead. Why did I say that? Of course I don't understand if he doesn't want to go.

"If you knew I didn't want to go…why did you ask?" I sighed and was contemplating just hanging up on him, running into my room and burying my face into a pillow.

"I…I just…so are you coming or not?" Oh my god that sounded rude almost.

"I don't go out in public…"

"Oh. I see… Well, then will I see you later?"

"…why…" he whispered as if to himself. "Why do you want to see me?"

"Because we're friends. I just want to get to know you better. I don't know why, but it just bothers me to know that you're all alone over there with no one to talk to."

"I believe I've told you I prefer it that way…"

"Do you honestly want to be alone for the rest of your life?" Wow it's a lot easier to talk to him over the phone. He didn't respond to that question so I asked again.

"Will I see you tonight?"

"I suppose."

"Where?"

"The fountain." He then hung up the phone. I closed my cell phone and sat it on the coffee table. I really hoped tonight would be the first night Vincent and I could actually have a serious conversation. I laid on the couch and watched the TV on mute so that I could hear when he left his apartment.


	5. Abnormal Behavior

**Apartment 102**

**Abnormal Behavior **

I waited and waited and never heard Vincent's door open. At midnight I decided that maybe I had zoned out and just didn't hear it so I left. I walked out to the courtyard alone. I shivered slightly and hugged myself for warmth in this chilly night. I finally made it to the fountain only to see no Vincent. I jumped up and sat on the edge of it. At night they turned the fountain off so it was safe to sit on the edge without getting wet by the mist. I sat there for what seemed like forever. I looked down at my cell phone and saw that it was 1:15 A.M.

Ten minutes later I had had enough waiting so I went back to my apartment and went to bed. Tomorrow was Monday and I had a class at ten. I could not believe Vincent actually stood me up. I guess he really does prefer to be alone. Well…I'll let him have his way.

∞∞

"Maya, what's wrong?" Rena waved a hand in front of my face. We sat together in the cafeteria both eating a cheeseburger and French fries.

"Nothing." I sighed and ate another fry. They were no McDonald's fries by no means. I'm sure they could have at least been cooked for another five minutes.

"You keep zoning out. Are you missing Trace?" she grinned at me as if she knew that was the answer. It honestly wasn't though. I hadn't even thought about Trace that much.

I shook my head no.

"Uh huh." She looked at me suspiciously. "Come on, we've been best friends for like ever and you've never hidden stuff from me before. Spill."

"I'm just tired that's all. College is rough and it sucks that my father won't be there to see me graduate…" I sighed. I wasn't exactly lying to her. This thought had been on my mind for a while as well. Here I am doing my best to make my father proud and he won't even be there to see it.

"Oh…yeah…but I'm sure he's watching from somewhere." She reached across the table and patted my arm lightly. "Cheer up! I know one thing about your dad and that's he would never want to see his daughter looking depressed like this."

I sighed and showed her a slight smile. The rest of our quick lunch was pretty quiet and then we were off to our English class.

∞∞

After my classes were over, I spent the rest of the evening cleaning. There were dishes stacked sky high in the sink, clutter everywhere, old papers that I wasn't sure if I was ready to throw away yet laying everywhere, and not to mention there were still empty boxes piled up in my living room that had been sitting there since the day I moved in two months ago. I saved the chore of carrying them all the way outside to the dumpsters for last. I swear those it must be a mile walk out to those things. On the way back I saw a guy wearing a black baseball cap, a _white_ T-shirt, and black windbreaker pants leaving his very nice black car with bags of groceries hanging off of his arms. A single orange miraculously found its way out of a bag and rolled on the ground near me. I quickly bent down and got it for him.

"Thanks…" he sounded an awful lot like Vincent! I looked up and saw a pair of unique crimson orbs that could only belong to him. What was he doing dressed like this!? C&R?! That's a public place! The only other detail that would have made this scenario completely impossible is if this were broad daylight. However it was a little after 8:30 and completely dark.

"Why'd you ditch me last night?" I crossed my arms followed closely behind him.

"I was not feeling well."

"You look just fine today." I remarked almost rudely. He didn't respond to my comment but picked up his pace. He walked faster up the stairs carrying a thousand bags of groceries than I do carrying a single purse.

"Vincent…" I crossed my arms again and pouted up at him once we reached his door. He glanced down at me for a brief second putting an arm full of bags gently on the ground so he could open his door. He walked inside leaving his door wide open. I took this as an invitation to enter. I closed the door behind me and looked around his dark living room. All of the furniture was black leather; the coffee table was black, TV stand black, lamp and lamp shade black. There was even a huge black rug on the dark grey carpet. I followed him through the living room to the left into his kitchen. It wasn't much brighter in there, but unless he was going to go out of his way to get custom cabinets made, it couldn't get any darker. He took off the baseball cap letting his long hair cascade down his back. He even managed to wear that bandana even under the cap. I assumed this was the look he put on in public so he'd blend in a little better. Instead of a gauntlet he wore a black leather glove over his left hand. He started emptying the bags and putting the contents up on his cream colored counter tops. It was almost like he didn't even realize I had followed him in there as he carried on without giving me so much as a glance.

"Is it ok if I come in?" I laughed softly.

"It seems you already are." He answered. I walked over to his refrigerator and opened it. Wow yeah he did need to go grocery shopping. The only thing sitting in his fridge was my half eaten cake.

"Ah ha! So you have been eating my cake. You can probably throw it out now these things really only last a week or so." I turned to him and he held out a carton of eggs to me. I took it and placed it in his fridge for him. "Was it like completely delicious or what?" I laughed. He simply shrugged. I moved out of his way so he could finish putting away his groceries. After he put everything away I followed him back into his living room and sat on the couch with him. He looked at me with an expressionless face.

"I believe you live over there." He said pointing at the door. I leaned towards him and pouted up at him. He leaned away from me and looked away.

"You ditched me the other night so we gotta hang out tonight." I smiled up at him before snatching his remote off of the coffee table. The TV was on the local news channel. I was a little disappointed I thought I was going to catch him watching the naughty channels or something silly like cartoons. I turned over to a music channel. Vincent sighed loudly and brought a hand to the bandana over his forehead stroking it lightly. I turned the volume down a little bit and turned to him.

"You told me you didn't go out in public."

"I wouldn't if I didn't have to, but you see I need food to survive starvation." He leaned back into his couch and crossed his arms across his chest. I laughed.

"So…how long have you lived here?" I asked trying to strike up a conversation hoping Vincent wouldn't shut me down and push me out the door.

"Long before you came here."

I sighed and was kind of unsatisfied with that answer so I tried a different question. "So…how come you like being alone so much? Doesn't it get kind of…lonely?"

"I've found people to be distrustful, dishonest, and quite bothersome." He spoke with no enthusiasm and there was no emotions written on his pale face.

I frown at this answer. "Yeah a lot of people are like that, but not everybody."

"I'd rather not take my chances with anyone."

I sighed and leaned back against his leather couch. "Don't be that way."

"I believe I have the authority to be however it is I wish to be."

Even though this was probably the most he'd ever said to me within five minutes of talking, it wasn't the kind of conversation I was looking for. The silence that took over after his last statement made me feel entirely uncomfortable. And it was obvious he didn't want me here so I stood up.

"Well…I've got studying 'n stuff to do…so…uh...talk to you later." I quickly made an exit, making sure I locked the door behind me as I left. I wonder what might have happened in his past to make him feel this way about people…

∞∞

October passed just as quickly as it arrived and November was here. Finals were in one month and I was not looking forward to that, but on the other hand I couldn't wait for Christmas break. I hadn't even spoken to Vincent since the night in his apartment. He made no efforts to speak to me either so I figured he was happy with it being this way. And if he was truly happy then I guess I couldn't worry for him.

Rena and I were on our way to spend a 'Girls Night' at my apartment. We hadn't had one of these nights since high school where we did each others hair and nails. We even bought a horror movie to watch. Tomorrow was Saturday so we didn't have to worry about waking up for class tomorrow.

"This is going to be so much fun!" Rena squealed as we ran up the stairs. I ran into the back of her as she stopped suddenly as she turned the corner. She gasped and covered her mouth.

"What?!" I hurried around the corner and saw a person lying on the floor. I could tell it was Vincent by the way his long black hair was spread out on the floor. I knew him better than to think he was sleep there. I hurried to his side.

"Maya! Don't touch him! What if he's dead?!" She hurried to my side and yanked my arm towards her. I gently pulled my arm out of her grip and bent down by his side.

"Vincent?" I shook him lightly. He didn't respond so I rolled him over on his back and pushed all the hair out of his face. He was so pale even more so than usual. I leaned closer to his face and saw that he was still breathing. I put a hand to his forehead and snatch it back. "Oh my God he's burning up. Help me carry him inside so I can put something cold on his head."

"Shouldn't we just call an ambulance?"

For someone that hated being out in public he'd probably hate me for taking him to a hospital even though he really should go. I was close to panic mode and really didn't know what to do. "Let's just get him inside the apartment first."

I unlocked the door and swung it wide open. Rena grabbed Vincent's legs and I wrapped my arms around his upper half right under his arm pits. My heart raced as I took in his scent. I never imagined I'd get this close to Vincent. We carried him inside and got him on the couch. He was way heavier than he looked. I got a cold wash cloth and some ice and rested it on his forehead after taking off his bandana. I then started unbuttoning his black shirt. He wore a black tank top underneath. I struggled but could not get his shirt off for nothing so I left it hanging open. Rena stood by looking down at him.

"Are you sure he's not going to wake up and attack us?" she asked.

"I'm sure he wouldn't do that. He'll probably wake up and walk out without saying anything." I stood up next to Rena and looked down at him. We stared at him for about five minutes before he shifted and began coughing. I bent down beside him again and took the ice and cloth off of his forehead. He was actually very handsome. I even saw Rena's eyes light up a bit once she saw his entire face. He opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"Vincent I think you should go to the hospital."

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment then opened them again. "No…I'm not going to a hospital. I'm fine." He made no move in standing up or anything. As if he could at the moment. He looked at my friend then back at me.

"You have a fever. Evidently a fever so bad that you passed out!" He didn't look phased.

Rena sighed. "If he doesn't want to go…"

"This is nothing to just ignore. You can die if you let a fever get out of control." I looked at Rena and Vincent like they were both out of their minds.

"I can't die." Vincent said nonchalantly. "I get like this once every month or so…its nothing. Just give me a moment and I'll go home and rest. Tomorrow I will be fine." He forced himself into a sitting position and straightened out his shirt, leaving it open.

Rena and I looked at each other then back down at Vincent. He shot a glance at the both of us then looked down at his hands in his lap.

"What do you mean you can't die?" Rena asked putting a hand on her hip. Vincent acted as if he didn't hear her so I asked again.

"Why can't you die?"

"It won't let me." He muttered.

"Ok. He's crazy. Maya start packing." Rena took a few steps away from him. "I take it the Girl's Night is cancelled?"

"Yeah…it's cancelled." I sighed and plopped down on the couch next to Vincent. He flinched as I placed a hand to his forehead again. I had to find his forehead under all the hair his bandana let loose. "This isn't normal."

"I am not normal, Miss Arai." He said in a flat tone. Rena slowly made her way to the door and quickly exited.

"Vincent…"

"Your friend's right, you should start packing." He slowly stood and made it halfway across the living room before relying on the chair to support him.

"I'm not going anywhere and neither are you. Sit right there I'll go make you some green tea that will make everything better." I patted his shoulder gently as he sank down into the chair. He didn't argue with me at all, but sat there like I told him. He can't die? That must explain how he's sixty years old and looks twenty. What's this 'it' that's keeping him from dying? I wish he'd just tell me…

I poured the special green tea in a red mug and carried it into the living room. Vincent sat in the chair looking completely miserable. He took the mug from me with both hands and looked down into it.

"It's not poisoned, I swear." I laughed softly.

"It wouldn't matter; I told you I can't die." He took a sip of it and looked down into the mug again.

"It's a secret recipe passed down from my great great great grandma." I sat on the arm rest of the chair and looked down at him as he drank the tea. "You like it don't you?"

"It soothes the symptoms quite a bit." He admitted. I smiled down at him and could not resist reaching out and tucking a piece of hair that kept threatening to fall into the mug each time he took a sip behind his ear. He froze at my touch.

"Sorry." I said softly once I realized I had made him feel uncomfortable.

"I'm the one that should apologize." He handed me the empty mug. I put it behind me on the end table near by. I smiled.

"About what?"

"Being…cold towards you. You did not deserve that." He looked up at me and for the first time held eye contact with me for more than just a brief second. It was the first he really _looked_ at me and honestly the first time I had ever really _looked_ at him, and I wasn't ashamed to say I liked what I saw. I just wished I knew a little bit more about what I was looking at.

"Apology accepted." I smiled at him and broke off what seemed to be a staring contest. He looked over at the couch. "You can lie back down if you want to. I rented movies just for tonight because me and Rena were going to have a girl's night tonight. Do you want to watch them with me so I didn't totally waste my money?"

He nodded. I sat down on the floor in front of the TV and set up the movie. I was very proud to say that I indeed figured out how to hook up the DVD player by myself and it honestly wasn't even hard. I sat in the chair and Vincent laid on my couch as we watched the horror movies. Although Vincent didn't say a word once again his presence was enough. It was hard to tell if he was even awake or not most of the time, but it didn't matter he was here with me.


	6. Dinner Date

**Apartment 102**

**Dinner Date**

I groaned feeling the pain in my neck as I woke up. The title screen of the movie was still on the TV. Oh God! I fell asleep watching movies with Vincent. I sat up from the awkward position that I had slumped into sleeping in the chair. I looked to my right and was surprised to see Vincent still sprawled out on my couch, one of his legs hanging off the side while the other stuck straight out with his foot hanging off of the arm rest. His right arm was resting above his head while his gauntlet hand was resting on his chest. All of his hair was pushed away out of his face leaving him looking so vulnerable and unguarded.

I couldn't help staring at his face for a while. Now I know that frown was permanent. I quickly stood up so I could make myself look presentable before Vincent awoke and saw me. I rushed to the bathroom and took a quick shower, changed into a pair of gray pants and a pink T-shirt with grey righting on it, and combed my hair neatly. I then figured that whenever Vincent woke up, he'd probably be hungry and want breakfast. Though, it was already ten o'clock. Before I could even start breakfast I heard someone shuffling around in the living room. I stuck my head in the doorway to see Vincent putting his bandana back on.

"Hey Vincent, you want breakfast?" I walked up next to the couch and looked down at him. He buttoned his shirt and stood up.

"No." he said looking down at me. He was right…he looks perfectly find today. What could possibly make him that deathly sick for a day?

"What happened yesterday to make you so sick?"

Vincent frowned even deeper than his lips already were. "It's…a long story. By the way, I did not intend to stay the night here."

"It's ok. I didn't mean to fall asleep during the movie or I would have woke you. You didn't strike me as the sleepover type of guy." I laughed.

"Smart observation." He said nonchalantly as he passed me on his way to the door. "Thanks for…" he paused at the door for a moment.

I waited patiently for him to finish.

"Thank you." He said finally before quickly disappearing out of the door. I sighed and shook my head. Thanks for helping you? Was it really that hard to admit that I had helped him? Oh yes that was far too many words of gratitude for Vincent Valentine to express. I laughed to myself, but got serious just as quick as I heard that special ring tone from my cell phone.

Why was Trace calling me? I hurried over to my purse that was thrown on the coffee table carelessly from last night.

"Hello?"

"Amaya? Babe? Listen…"

"You haven't called me in over a month!" The calm sweet little Ama-chan disappeared. I waited impatiently for his pathetic excuse.

"Babe… I've been working so much and college is so hard. I barely passed first semester. Don't think that I haven't been thinking about you because I have. I'm even going to drive up there tonight to see you and take you out to dinner. If…you will…"

It had been a long time since I had been out on a date. I really didn't want to admit it, but I honestly did miss Trace. I sighed and agreed to meet up with him at a Mexican restaurant at seven o'clock.

∞∞

When I called Rena and told her what had just happened, she couldn't resist running over.

"Ooo girl! You gotta look hot tonight and show Trace just what he was missing!" she said as she applied my eye make up. I laughed softly.

"Whatever. I honestly don't think its going to work out between me and him for too much longer anyways. In fact I was pretty sure we were over." I winced as she started on my hair. I was always nervous about other people curling my hair because I've had my ears burned too many times.

"But you guys are so cute together!" She squealed before taking a piece of my hair into the curling iron.

I rolled my eyes. The only think that was really even cute about Trace was his amazing eyes. He was 100 Asian, but somehow managed to come out with the prettiest green eyes. He always dressed very nice, and had cute spikey hair. I am usually more of a shy person who likes to let others take the lead and Trace was great leader. While we were in high school he was the class president all four years. Back then I would have sworn Trace would be the man I married and had kids with.

"What am I going to college for? I should have just been a hairstylist." Rena grinned at me in the mirror as she fluffed my curly hair. It did look really great as if I had just come back from a salon.

"Yeah really." Her hair was always perfect as well. She's had long hair all through high school, but halfway through the year she cut her hair to about neck length and has kept it within that range ever since. She usually had a pink, red, blue, or purple streak in it somewhere. It's been highlighted millions of times and died brown and even blond once. Today it was actually plain black.

She picked out a cute black sweater, a jean skirt that reached just below my knees, and black boots that came up to wear the skirt ended. "Knock him dead, Maya." We gave each other a high five and laughed.

∞∞

I sat in the Mexican restaurant alone for the longest time listening to the loud Spanish music. It was so busy tonight; thank God Trace made us reservations. Now if he would just get here…

I looked down at my watch to see it was 15 minutes past seven. Trace was never one to be on time so this didn't worry me too much. However, after forty-five minutes I realized the unthinkable. Trace had actually stood me up. If I was really over him and really didn't miss him why did this hurt me so much?

I drove home with tears streaming down my face. Rena's masterpiece of make up was now completely ruined. I slammed my car door shut and ran to the entrance of the apartments. I stomped up the stairs and flew around the corner now fully crying. I sniffed and wiped my eyes as I walked slowly down the hall looking at the floor. I made it all the way to my apartment door before collapsing. I cried heavily with my forehead pressed against the door. How could he do this to me? He could have at least called if he wasn't going to make it, but he just wasn't thinking about me at all.

I heard shuffling and someone clearing their throat to the right of me. I slowly stood and turned to see Vincent sitting on the couch looking up at me. I wiped my tears away quickly and sniffed hard so I wouldn't turn into a total mess in front of him. Vincent dropped his gaze to the floor.

"Do you need to talk about it?" he asked softly.

"Do you really want to listen?" I didn't really want to sit there and pour my heart out to someone that really didn't want to hear it and was only trying to be nice because he felt sorry for me. He probably also feels like he owes me something now for taking care of him.

"You called me your friend… isn't that what friends do?" He brought his gaze from the floor straight to my eyes. I nodded before turning to my door.

"I'll be back in a second." I said in a voice so little it could have been a whisper. I quickly hurried into my apartment, threw my tall boots off, wiped my make up off, and blew my nose a couple of times. I then returned to the hall where Vincent sat quietly. I approached him slowly unsure of just how close he'd let me get. As I sat down he scooted over making sure we were at least a foot apart. I clasped my hands together in my lap and looked down at them waiting for him to say something.

"So…?"

"My boyfriend stood me up." A tear slid down my cheek and I let it run all the way to my chin. Vincent didn't say anything, but I wasn't expecting it. "We haven't seen each other since I moved here. So, I was really looking forward to it. I haven't been on an actual date like that in a long time."

"Meaningless…" Vincent muttered before yawning.

"It means something to me." I said firmly. Vincent sighed loudly before asking.

"That's it? That's what you were upset about?" He looked at me as if I was the most pathetic thing on the planet.

"Yeah…" I sniffed again and wiped my eyes.

"I'll take you out to dinner." I watched him wince after those words left his mouth. My sobs turned into silent laughs.

"That's ok, Vincent I know you don't really want to." I looked over at him and smiled. He didn't smile back, but turned and looked out the window

"No, I don't want to, but I will because I owe it to you. Meet me out here at eight tomorrow night." He stood up and walked passed me.

"Eight? That's awfully late most places close at nine around here." I looked up and watched him walk away.

"I know a place that stays open until ten." He said before walking into his apartment and shutting the door. I smiled to myself. A date with Vincent Valentine!? I was definitely done crying over Trace. Who is Trace anyways? I hurried back into my apartment and started looking through my closet for something to wear. It could possibly take me all night tonight and all day tomorrow to get ready.

∞∞

It was seven thirty and I was already sitting on my couch fully ready. I wore my hair up in a curly ponytail, with my bangs and a few strands on the sides of my face down. After a hundred different outfits I finally settled on a striped black and white long sleeved shirt and black dress pants with high heels. Vincent was way taller than I was and I didn't want to walk up into a place looking like father and daughter.

Finally it was eight o'clock. I slowly opened my door and peeked out to see if Vincent was sitting there waiting. Ironically, he was just now opening his door as well. I grinned at him only to receive a nod. He looked really handsome in his black dress shirt, and black pants. He wore a black glove over his left hand instead of that horrible looking gauntlet. He also wore black shoes instead of those hideous gold boots. His hair was tied back in a low ponytail

"Hi." I closed my door behind me trying to think if I grabbed everything. He responded with a "Hm."

"Are you a good driver?"

"...seeing as I have been driving for more than forty years." He muttered leading the way. I wanted to reach out and take his hand, but I didn't know how he'd react so I didn't. I was having a hard time keeping up with him in my high heels. He had to keep looking over his shoulder to see if I was coming or not.

"Wow, you have a really nice car." I said as we approached his black luxury car. He walked around to the passenger side and opened the door for me. "Thanks." I looked around at inside of his car. He had a really nice CD player and nice leather seats. He sat down in the driver seat and sighed before starting the car. He whipped the car so fast out of the parking lot; I had to reach out for the dash board.

"Sorry." He said quietly with no emotion.

"I thought you said you were a good driver."

"By my standards." He said before revving up and flying out of the parking lot. He slowed down once we got on the main road.

"What did you do to afford this?" I looked over at him. He frowned and shrugged. I sighed.

"Come on, Vincent, you can't keep avoiding my questions."

"Why can't I?" He glanced over at me long enough to not see the car stop in front of him forcing him to slam on his breaks to avoid hitting it.

"God." I said laughing. Vincent sighed and relaxed against the seat. "Anyways so tell me."

"I received a sum of money as a result of a lawsuit." He said.

"Oooh." I didn't ask any more questions about it. "Can I borrow it sometime?" I laughed.

"It's fine by me."

"What?! You'd let me drive your car!?"

He shrugged. I smiled as I looked out the window. Man I am really starting to like Vincent. I can't believe I am riding in his car _right now_. I saw him glance at me again out of corner of my eye. Wow we are getting further and further from the apartments, just where is he taking me?

"Where are we going?"

"We're almost there." He said taking one hand off the wheel and resting it on his thigh. He didn't even seem like he was aware of any of the other cars on the road, but managed to get us to the restaurant safely. I could tell from the outside that it was an expensive place. Vincent parked and got out of the car. As soon as I found the door handle, Vincent had already opened the door for me again.

"Thank you." I said. He walked close to me and didn't make eye contact with anyone that we passed as we walked into the place.

"Valentine." He said to the man at the podium. A woman then came up to us and led us to our table. Vincent was even quick to pull my chair out for me. I thanked him again and sat down. Vincent sat across from me.

I looked over the menu and was relieved to see that they served normal food here like sandwiches and chicken. I wanted to have some pasta, but I could just see myself with noodles everywhere so I settled on something simple that I couldn't make a mess with: chicken strips.

Vincent ordered a steak. He didn't strike me as a steak man. The first couple of minutes were disturbingly quiet. Both of us were looking around the room instead of at each other. Then finally I felt his eyes rest on me. "So…is this what you consider a date?"

"Oh, yes. It feels good to be out on a date finally. Even if it is just with a friend." I smiled at him. Why did I just say that? Now I've probably made him feel as if we could be nothing else. Wait…how do I know he even considers me a friend? This is a pity date anyways isn't it… He said he owed me this.

He nodded in response.

"So when's the last time you've been on a date?" I took a sip of my water. Vincent was drinking red wine.

"Many years ago." He looked down at the table then back up at me.

"So, you really are sixty years old?"

He nodded then shrugged. "Something like that, I've lost track actually."

"Wow how do you lose track of how old you are?" Finally we're getting to have an actual conversation. He frowned a little bit.

"If I'm not getting any older what does it matter?" He took a quick sip of his wine. He looked really handsome under the dim lighting of the restaurant. It was hard for me not to just get lost in those crimson eyes.

"That's true, I guess… What happened to you?"

He sighed loudly. "If and when I do tell you the story, it won't be in a public place." He didn't look at the waitress as she sat our plates in front of us. Nor did he respond to her "Enjoy."

We ate quietly for a few minutes before I broke the silence with another question. "So like do you work or anything?"

"No." he answered.

"Wow. What do you do in you're spare time then?" The chicken strips were amazing! So tender and the outsides were so crispy.

"Nothing." Vincent cut away at his steak.

"So that means you have plenty of time to hand out with your new awesome friend, right?" I grinned at him as he looked up at me.

"Shouldn't you be focused on hanging out with your other friend?" he sipped his wine and looked at me again waiting for me to answer.

"She gets busy with her job and stuff. Plus she's all into this guy she's been talking to. I haven't really gotten that close with anyone else around here and I guess my boyfriend Trace is pretty much out of the picture now. So that leaves you, neighbor!" I laughed and grinned at him.

He rolled his eyes making me laugh even harder. "You know you are sooo happy I moved next to you."

"I'm sorry to say that soon enough you will find out just why nobody lives next to me." He gave me a look while cutting into his steak. My smile faded. What is he talking about and why is he looking at me like that?

"Why?"

He didn't respond, but kept cutting into his steak and looking at me with those dark eyes. He brought the fork with the little chunk of meat to his lips and chewed it while he continued to stare at me. I quickly looked down at my plate and finished eating.

Vincent didn't say anything to me on the way back home. There weren't very many cars out then so he flew down the road going fifteen over the speed limit which made the ride home ten times shorter than the ride there. We walked together to our apartments and Vincent paused next to my door.

"Thank you." I said.

"It was nothing. Good night." I wanted him to hug me or something, but he didn't. I shouldn't have expected it.

"Bye." I said before turning away and going into my apartment.


	7. That is My Story

**Apartment 102**

**That is My Story**

It had been two days since I went out on a date with Vincent. However I haven't seen or heard from him since then. I was still worried about what he meant by I will soon see why no one lives near him. The look in his eyes was just disturbing. I was partially scared of what was possibly bound to come.

As usual Rena and I sat in the cafeteria in our lunch break.

"So Maya, now that you are officially single I think you should go out on some dates and meet some new guys."

I sighed. "Well, Trace still hasn't called me so I haven't got a chance to tell him we're over. And maybe _just_ maybe he might have a legitimate excuse. I thought I was done with Trace, but actually I can't see myself starting over. I don't think I'll ever get to the place where Trace and I were with any other guy." After thinking long and hard about the situation I began to realize this. As much as I like Vincent these days, I know he's not relationship material.

Rena nodded. "I can't speak for you because I've never been in such a long term relationship before, but if you just try talking to other guys it might change your mind. Just go on one date." She held up her finger.

"I've been on a date."

Rena almost spilled her drink. "What?! With who!?"

"My neighbor took me out to dinner." I smiled at her reaction to me having been out on a date.

"Your neighbor… as in creepy vampire neighbor? Please tell me you didn't." She crossed her arms and gave me a look.

"What? He's was really nice. He opened doors for me, pulled my chair out. He has a really nice car and he said I could borrow it if I wanted to. He's just a friend anyways, though."

"Let's hope so. Nice car or not, he's just weird. Hot maybe, but still weird."

I laughed. "I'm gonna tell him you said he was hot."

"Tell him, I don't care. Maybe he'll let _me_ borrow his car. Tatsu's already having engine trouble!" She and I laughed and finished our cheap lunch before heading towards our next class.

∞∞

I didn't get back home to my apartment until after eight o'clock. I sat in my car for a minute looking through my glove box for one of my mixed CDs that I swore I left in here. I froze suddenly as I heard a growling sound from outside. My heart rate quadrupled and my instinct told me to stay low as I lay across the front seats. I stayed in that position for about five minutes before deciding that I had indeed lost my mind and it was probably just a stupid dog. I shut my glove box and sat up. It was so quiet I could hear my heartbeat. I swallowed hard before opening my car door and slowly stepping out. There's nothing out here…there's nothing out here. I kept repeating to myself inside my head. I then heard what sounded like the flapping of wings. I looked up to the sky and as soon as I did my vision was clouded by a dark figure flying directly into me knocking me to the ground. I opened my eyes again and met a pair of glowing yellow eyes. Strangely enough I recognized this figure to be…Vincent…well…sort of. It hissed at me, showing off a pair of fangs. I was paralyzed with fear. I stared at the winged creature on top of me with wide eyes. It hissed again before shooting up into the air at and amazing speed. The wind from its movement was so strong it sent me into the ground again. When I finally gathered the strength to stand, I literally ran at full speed towards the apartment building. I climbed those stairs in less than seven seconds, and flew around the corner. The door to Vincent's apartment was flung wide open. So…that really was him back there.

I heard someone coming down the hall and turned sharply to see Vincent dressed in that sinister looking red cloak with black clothes underneath. He approached me slowly as if expecting me to take out running. "Are you ok?" he didn't sound the least bit concerned and didn't even make eye contact with me as he asked.

"Yeah…I take it…th…that's why no one lives here…" I looked down at my feet afraid to look him in the eye.

"Hm…" Vincent responded with a nod. He made a move to step inside his apartment, but I quickly stepped in front of him, causing him to jerk back in surprise.

"I'm not scared, and I'm not going anywhere. You're my friend."

"I'm a monster, Amaya." Did he just really use my first name!? It rolled off his tongue like it was nothing. He brushed past me into his apartment. I followed him in there and shut the door behind me. "It took a lot out of me to not hurt you back there. Had I not had the slightest control over him, he would have killed you." He unbuckled his cloak and hung it on the coat rack in the corner of his living room. He walked past me again and locked the door.

"But he didn't." I said. Vincent stopped directly in front of me and stared down at me. His eyes darted around my face. If I hadn't known Vincent Valentine any better I would have said he was about to kiss me, but instead he spoke again.

"But he could have, he's done it before. Many, many times before and I could not stop him." He finally backed away from me and walked to the couch. I swallowed hard before following him and sitting down next to him. He sighed loudly. "Please, just go. I am already not feeling well."

"It's him that makes you so sick?" I asked not moving a muscle. I watched him lean back against the couch and bring a hand to his head.

He nodded. "Figuratively and literally." I stood and turned back to him.

"You wanna come over to my place and have some green tea?" He looked up at me then down at the coffee table again.

"I don't want to take advantage of you."

"It's not taking advantage. In return for the tea, you tell me you're story." I beamed at him. He groaned as he stood up. I tried to take his hand but he swung it away from me as he walked past me to the door. He jerked it open and was to my door before I even got there. I let him into my apartment and motioned for him to sit on the couch. He did so and waited while I prepared my family's special green tea. I returned to see Vincent flipping through my biology text book.

"Should you not be studying right now?" he asked as I handed him the red mug filled to the brim with steaming green tea. Vincent blew on it a few times before taking a very small sip.

"Uh yeah probably, but I'm not going to because you are going to tell me you're story. Now." I smiled at him again and took a seat next to him on the couch. He sighed loudly and sat the mug on the coffee table.

"…such a long story…" he muttered scooting away from me. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"I've got all night."

Vincent gave me a look before preparing himself to tell me just exactly what happened in his past to make him the way he is today. He sat for a good five minutes in silence before speaking again.

"Have you heard of a secret organization called the Turks?" He turned to me. I studied his features under the dim lighting of my living room. I shook my head no.

"Well…I was one of them. The job of a Turk included anything from assassinations to body guarding. I did many things during those years that I highly regret." He paused for a moment to take a sip of tea.

"When I turned twenty six I was assigned the job of guarding a science laboratory during a top secret experiment. The leading scientist there was a mad man that conducted many horrible underground experiments on humans. He even got his wife pregnant just to experiment on their son." He paused again.

"That's awful… And the police didn't know about any of this?"

"No, that was the job of the Turks to keep police, and anyone else away from this place." He took another drink of his tea before relaxing against my couch.

"During my time as a bodyguard there, I spoke many times with the scientist, Hojo's wife. We ended up having an affair." Aww! So Vincent has been in love before. I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face. Vincent shot me a look before continuing.

"She didn't love him, and was growing tired of living the way she was. So I offered to run away with her because I was tired of the way I was living. I didn't want to have anything to do with the Turks anymore, but that organization wasn't something you could just walk out of. I was basically stuck there. So it only made sense to me that we both just run away, but she hesitated and stuck by her husband for a little while longer. Hojo eventually found out about the affair and naturally he wasn't happy. He shot and killed me upon finding out. He then experimented with my body and added the Chaos gene, and to add to my disposition he made me immortal so I would forever have to live like this. When I awoke for the first time, Chaos immediately took over and I destroyed the lab. I killed everyone there…including Lucrecia. I could see her begging me to stop, but I couldn't stop. That image haunts me to this day and I will forever have to live with it. That is my story."

"So you have been in love before…" I smiled at him. "Vincent, that's such a sad story." I reached out and rested and hand on his arm. He flinched and took his arm away. I really just wanted to hold him and tell him that I'd be here for him no matter what, but couldn't bring myself to do it.

"Don't." He whispered, he stared ahead of him at my blank TV in a daze. I sighed and scooted further away from him.

"How come Chaos makes you sick?"

"When I restrain against his actions, or hold him inside, he releases toxins into my body that are supposed to weaken me so he can take over, but all they really do is make me sick. However if I continue to time after time hold him inside, it makes me so sick that I have no choice but to let him out."

"Oh…well, you know you can come here anytime while you're sick, and I'll take good care of you. I don't consider it taking advantage of me." I smiled at him even though he wasn't looking my way. He drank my tea quietly without saying anything else. He suddenly stood.

"I'm going to go lay down in my apartment. Thank you, but I'll be fine. I've done this for more than thirty years." I stood also and I knew as soon as the thought popped into my head that I shouldn't do it, it was a very bad idea, but nonetheless I threw my arms around him and buried my face into his black shirt. I felt his body stiffen and heard the gasp from his lips. I wondered just how long it had been since Vincent received a hug from anyone. Evidently a very long time. His arms hung stiffly at his sides, both his hands had balled up into fists.

"I know you probably don't understand why…I don't even understand why, but I care a lot about you. It really hurt me just now to hear what you've been through." I said against his chest.

"I don't need it." He said pulling away from me. "I've stopped caring a long time ago; I don't need anyone else caring about me." He walked away leaving me standing there alone in my living room. I wrapped my arms around myself and sighed. Maybe I just missed the feeling of being held. I'm not the kind of girl that can stand being alone for very long. I need that kind of attention.

∞∞

A full week went by since I had finally heard Vincent's story. George had been doing some serious spying as he let me know he saw Vincent leaving my apartment late the other night. He approached me begging for details about Vincent's past. I told him nothing. Trace had called. His excuse was his boss called him into work in the last minute. He had specifically taken off work that day, but since the person that was supposed to work for him didn't show, the boss called him in. That didn't explain why he couldn't call me until a week afterwards, but whatever. Christmas break was coming soon and I knew I wouldn't be able to make it through Christmas without a boyfriend, so I hung on to Trace.

Tonight the 'Girl's Night' was officially on. Rena, Lunaz, and I sat in my living room in our pajamas watching a scary movie. Lunaz was a girl from college that we kept running into during our lunch break. Just recently she starting sitting with us at lunch, which led to her being invited to our girl's night.

"Ah!!! Turn it off, turn it off!" Rena yelled shielding her eyes. The movie was getting kind of gory, I could barely look at it myself. I reached for the remote and shut it off while laughing at Rena. Lunaz chucked also.

All three of us jumped upon hearing a knock at my door. I stood up to go answer it, but Rena clung to me.

"Don't answer it!" she whispered loudly. The person outside the door knocked lightly again.

"Let go of me it's probably just the manager. He's been bugging the hell out of me lately." I escaped from her death grip and walked slowly to the door. I opened it slowly at first, then flung it open when I saw who was out there.

"Vincent! What's up? Wanna come join our girl's night?" I smiled up at him excitedly. He looked past me at the other two girls then back down at me.

"No…you carry on. I see you are busy now, I'll talk to you…tomorrow." Wow did Vincent really come _here_ to talk to _me?!_ I was so close to turning around and saying 'ladies I'm sorry, girl's nights over' but I knew that would be totally wrong so I just nodded.

"Ok..." I tried hard to think of something that would keep him around just a little bit longer. Rena surprisingly perked up with a great idea.

"Hey Vincent, how 'bout you take us for a ride in your car." She winked at him seductively. He gave me a weird look before looking past me at her.

"Another time." He said causing her to do the pouty face that usually made every man break down and do what she wanted. It didn't seem to have any effect on Vincent as he looked back down at me. "Bye."

"See ya." I smiled at him again before closing the door.

Rena grinned at me. "Aww…girl…I take back what I said about him being weird. I'll say he's unique, that's a better word. I approve of him."

"We are just friends. He's definitely not going to date me. And it's really true what he said about not dying, so even if we did get together he'd just have to watch me grow old and die."

"Am I missing something?" Lunaz stood from the couch and looked back and forth between Rena and I. We both looked at each other. Telling a bunch of people about Vincent being immortal was probably not a very good idea, and I wasn't about to do anything that I thought would push Vincent away now that he was letting himself get closer to me.


	8. Christmas

**Apartment 102**

**Christmas **

A few more weeks passed by quickly and it was time for finals and Christmas break. Christmas was exactly one week away from today and I was excited to go home and sleep in my old bed. I spoke to Vincent twice in the past two weeks. First, I made sure I got a hold of him the day after our girl's night to see what he wanted to talk about. He basically told me he had seen me talking with the manager and wanted to make absolute sure I hadn't said anything to him about the story of his past.

The second time we talked happened when we were both pulling into the parking lot and almost had a collision. I scolded him on his bad driving and he simply shrugged and gave me his apologies. Other than those two run ins, I hadn't seen much of Vincent. Tonight I was buried alive in notes and texts books trying to study for my last final before Christmas break.

I heard Trace's personalized ringtone come from somewhere under my covers. I dug through the covers on my bed until I found my cell phone and flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"Hey babe, I can't wait to see you. When are you going back to your home town?"

"The day before Christmas and I'm coming back on the 31st. Rena and I already have New Year's plans." I gathered up all of the papers on my bed and put them in a nice pile on the floor next to my bed. I talked with Trace for a little more than thirty minutes before finally going to bed at around two o'clock in the morning.

∞∞

I stumbled up the stairs and around the corner down the hallway after a long night of partying with Rena. Finals were over and we were determined to celebrate. I am not usually the one to drink, but for some reason tonight I threw out all those rules and was plastered. I zigzagged down the hall until I came to my door. I dropped to the floor and dug through my purse looking for those damn invisible keys.

"Shit!" I banged my fist against my door. Suddenly my purse floated away from me. I sat helplessly on the floor almost dozing off.

"Amaya…" I heard the familiar deep gravelly voice near my ear. Cold metal grasped my wrist, yanking me into a standing position. My body swayed to the left only to be caught by a strong arm. I breathed in the unique sent of faded cologne, laundry detergent, and zesty clean soap.

"Vincent?" I murmured against the fabric of his black shirt. I giggled and threw my arms around his slender waste. He pushed me away and let me fall flat on my ass. I groaned loudly.

"You're door's unlocked." He said before turning away.

"Don't leave me!" I yelled rather loudly than I had even expected to. He turned back and looked down at me. I was way too wasted to read the expression on his face. As if it wasn't hard enough trying to read him while I was sober.

I was once again hoisted up. Vincent locked my door and shut it then pulled me into his apartment and shut the door.

"Where have you been?" he asked pulling me into his kitchen and pushing me towards a chair. His actions weren't gentle or caring by any means, but I was grateful he didn't leave me lying in the hallway. He handed me a glass of water and sat across from me at his small table. The lights in his kitchen were fluorescent which made his pale skin appear twenty times paler than it was. Fluorescent lights always made flaws seem that much more visible as well, but under the lights I still could not see a single flaw in his skin, besides the darkness under his eyes.

"Finals are over!" I laughed. "Rena and I went to a party… too much vodka." I laughed again until a tear ran down my cheek. For one millisecond I swear I saw an amused look cross those impassive features. He covered that up quickly by showing a deep frown before he asked the next question.

"How did you get home?" What is he my father? Well, he might be old enough to be. Even physically he was still much older than me. I am eighteen years old and won't be nineteen until April 8th.

"Rena dropped me off." I drank all the water in the glass and pushed it towards Vincent. Vincent's eyebrows lowered as he stared into my eyes intently.

"Had she been drinking also?"

I blinked. There was no way I could lie to those eyes. They could read straight through me. In fact I bet he could read my mind right now.

"You could have called me. I would have brought you home." I smiled at him upon hearing this. Vincent does care…

My stomach churned and I could feel its contents rising up my esophagus. Vincent seemed to read the expression on my face and quickly snatched my wrist up again and pulled me towards his bathroom. The bathrooms in these apartments were horribly small and there was barely enough room for the both of us in there. I felt sharp metal finger tips graze the side of my face as Vincent attempted to pull my hair back away from my face as I barfed in his toilet. The embarrassment hadn't hit at that moment but I knew as soon as I sobered up I would be dying of embarrassment. For the first time Vincent showed a little bit of tenderness as he rubbed my back with his uncovered hand.

∞∞

I opened my eyes only to be greeted with compete darkness. What happened to me last night!? Where am I!? The memories slowly floated back to me. I buried my face in the pillow I was laying on and smelt that enticing scent. Vincent wouldn't!!!! I shot out of the bed and felt around the room until I flipped the light switch on. A very dim light lit the room. To my relief the bed was empty. I opened the bedroom door and flew straight across the hall into the bathroom. I looked absolutely horrid. My make up was smeared everywhere, my hair was a rat's nest, and all the color was drained from my face. I wondered if I could possible make it out of the apartment without having to face Vincent. I tip toed down the hallway and peered into the living room. Vincent was still fast asleep in his fully reclined chair with his robe thrown over him like a blanket. His bandana was slid down over his eyes and his hair was flowing everywhere. I tip toed up to his chair and leaned close to him to make sure he was sleeping. His steady breathing and the fact that he hadn't shoved me away from his face was proof enough that he was indeed asleep.

Even though I'd rather him not see me in such a horrendous way, I really didn't just want to bounce out without saying thanks. I leaned closer to him so my lips were an inch away from his ear.

"Vincent." I said in a normal voice. He remained motionless. I repeated his name a little bit louder and received the same response. I shook his shoulder gently, but still nothing. I then got the cruel idea of pulling the recliner's lever and sending him into a sitting position so fast he'd probably fly out of the chair. I pulled on his long hair. I was pleasantly surprised at how soft his hair was. I ran my hands through it a few times. He slept through all this without so much as a twitch. I sighed loudly and snatched the robe that served as his blanket away. My eyes almost popped out of my head once they rested on a shirtless Vincent laying there. He _still_ didn't wake up.

"Vincent!" I shouted before jumping up on the chair with him. He let out a soft moan and shifted slightly. He turned his face towards me leaving our faces inches apart. I reached up and pulled his bandana back up over his forehead where it belonged. His eyes opened into slits then widened quickly. He tried to jump back away from me but it only resulted in the chair tipping backwards sending us both to the floor. Vincent landed on top of me, but was only there for a brief second before jumping off me at lightening speed. I laughed at him.

"I don't bite, I swear." I stood up and sat his chair back up. "You are the heaviest sleeper."

"How long have you been there?" He demanded quickly snatching up his robe and putting it on as if to keep me from seeing what I had already been gawking at.

"Long enough." I gave him a naughty smile before walking towards the door. "I just wanted to say thanks for helping me last night. I don't usually drink at all, let alone that much…" I laughed nervously.

"We're even now." He sat back down in his recliner returning it to its normal chair form.

"I hope I didn't mortify you by anything you saw last night." For example me puking in your toilet. I can't even remember anything else that happened after that or how I got into his bed. Where are my shoes?!

"Nothing can be anymore mortifying than the monster I am." He said flatly. I frowned at him before searching the floor for a pair of heels.

"Don't say things like that. Vince, where're my shoes?" He stood and walked down the hall. He returned carrying my black high heels. I smiled up at him as I took them from his gauntlet. "Thanks again. And hey if I don't see you…Merry Christmas."

He nodded in response.

"Can I get a hug?"

He seemed to shrink away from me upon that request so I sighed. "Never mind, its ok." He made eye contact with me for a split second before turning away and returning to his chair. I turned around and went back to my apartment. I wish I could bring Vincent back to my hometown and spend Christmas with him. I do love Trace, but I can't stop these new feelings that have been surfacing for Vincent.

∞∞

"Merry Christmas!" My mom screeched as she flung open the door and greeted me with open arms. Trace stood by my side. My mother and he exchanged a smile and a nod. I ran through the house and went inside my old bedroom.

I jumped on the bed and buried my face in the ten pillows that were arranged on it. Trace sat at the end.

"Babe, you know you remember all those secret love sessions that went on in here." He gave me an evil smirk. I put my finger to my lips.

"Shhh!!" We both laughed. We lounged in my bedroom looking at old photos of us and reading old notes that he had wrote to me back in high school while waiting for my mom and my aunt to prepare the dinner. Even though these were the best memories of my life and I was having such a great time revisiting them with Trace, I could not stop thinking about Vincent. I thought it might be a good idea to give him a call and wish him a merry Christmas. I left Trace in my bedroom. He was falling asleep anyways so I didn't think he would mind me leaving him alone. I sat in the empty living room and pulled out my cell phone. This time it didn't take any effort in getting up the nerve to call Vincent.

"Hello?" came that deep voice that _still_ never failed to give me chills.

"Merry Christmas!" I yelled cheerfully. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

"Aww… What did you buy me for Christmas? I bought you something yesterday." I grinned.

"…you…shouldn't have…" I knew he probably hadn't thought to buy me anything, but at least I gave him a head's up that I bought him something so maybe by the time I got back he would have something for me. Even though I know that is not what gift giving is about. Plus this is Vincent Valentine we are talking about.

"I know, but I did. You'll love it." I smiled again.

"What is it?" he didn't sound even the tiniest bit excited, but really like I had actually expected him to.

"Uh! I can't tell you, silly." My brother passed by me in the living room and gave me a weird look. I expected him to run straight to Trace and tell him I was talking to other guys on the phone because that is just how those assholes acted. I glared at him.

"What kind of things do you like?" Wow was he actually going to buy me something!? My glare was instantly replaced by a grin.

"Girly things, stuff that smells good, jewelry, make up, anything like that. But you don't really have to get me anything if you don't want to." He paused after that and I swear I heard him whispering the list to himself as if he was writing it down.

"Ok." He said.

"Well my mom and my aunt have almost finished with Christmas dinner so I'll talk to you later, ok? I'll probably come home tomorrow or the next day. My brothers are already getting on my nerves!" I yelled purposely so my brother Satoshi could hear me.

"Bye."

I closed my cell phone only to be harassed endlessly over who I was talking to. Trace walked into the room just in time to hear the harassment.

"What? Babe you were talkin to another guy on the phone?" He approached me slowly with his hands out.

"No! Don't listen to these idiots! I was just talking to Rena." I crossed my arms to keep him from trying to invade my space.

"Who is he?"

I sighed loudly before throwing up my hands and walking into the kitchen. I was really close to just telling him exactly who it was and exactly why I was talking to him. But I didn't want to cause Vincent any trouble by having Trace trying to get all up in his face. Christmas dinner was tense. I sent about two hundred glares across the table at each of my brothers.

©©©©

**Thanks for all the reviews so far! Oh and ****fantasy-elf**yes Vincent still has his gun Cerberus, but I don't know if he'll ever need to actually use it because all of the antagonists in this story are gonna be pretty easy for him to handle on his own.

And **NebThauDragmire**you might just get to see that confrontation between Trace and Vincent after all.


	9. War

**Apartment 102**

**War**

I couldn't wait to get back to the apartments and give Vincent his Christmas gift and to see if he actually went out and bought me something. The sound of sirens and flashing red and blue lights quickly brought me out of that excitement.

I pulled over and rolled down my window as the police officer approached my car. I showed off the most innocent smile.

"Ma'am I clocked you going 85 miles per hour. That's 15 over the speed limit." The officer said in his southern accent. I didn't say a word but kept my innocent smile. However, no matter how innocent I looked the office handed me a 118 dollar ticket and a rude warning to drive slower. That didn't stop me from speeding the rest of the way home, though. And to think I scolded Vincent on his bad driving.

Once I finally reached the apartments I rushed into my apartment carrying my suitcase and bags full of the gifts my family had gotten me. It was still only a little after four in the afternoon so I knew Vincent probably wouldn't be anywhere in sight. I went ahead and unpacked all my stuff and put away all my gifts. I pulled the dark red gift bag out of my closet and set it on my bed. I bought Vincent a pot for making tea and framed my family's secret green tea recipe. I also bought him a few years worth of ingredients because some of them had to be imported here from Japan and are very hard to find. I was really concern with exposing my family secret recipe to him because really who else was he going to tell?

At around five o'clock I became incredibly impatient waiting for the late hours to come so I just picked up the phone and called Vincent.

"Hello?"

"Vincent! I'm home!" I sang out cheerfully. Talking on the phone with Vincent was pretty much the same as speaking to him in person. He showed no emotion, and had no enthusiasm in his voice. I could pretty much see him sitting in his chair holding the phone, being very still.

"Is that so…" he said the phrase more as a statement than a question.

"Yeah. Can I come over and hang out for a while? I have your gift here with me."

"I'd rather come there." Was he worried I would go snooping through his things? I rolled my eyes before agreeing.

"Yea that's fine. Are you hungry? If so… I'll cook us up something. Hey we can go grocery shopping and make a pizza together!" I know better than to get excited and make a bunch of plans talking to Vincent, but I couldn't help it. And in this case I wasn't going to give him a choice of what we were gonna do anyways.

"…"

"Vincent?" I walked into the bathroom and checked myself in the mirror. I picked up a comb and swooped my bangs over to the side. I let my aunt cut a few inches of my hair to help even it out a little bit and I was really happy with the results. I tossed the hair on the right side over my shoulder and left the left side resting on my chest.

"Ok…I'll be there in a few minutes." He didn't even say bye or anything before hanging up. I hurried around my house picking up random clutter. Vincent didn't lie about being there in a few minutes. I hurried to the door and flung the door open. Vincent stood there in black wind breaker pants, and a black T-shirt. He held a small box wrapped in silver wrapping paper in his right hand. He held it out to me immediately and I took from him with both hands.

"Thanks!" I turned away from him to pick up the dark red bag. I held it out to him and he took it, our fingers brushing lightly. Even that light touch gave me butterflies. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked down into the bag. We moved over to the couch and both began to examine our gifts. I peeled back the tape on the box and gently took the silver wrapping paper off. I knew right away by the shape of the box that it was a bracelet. I opened the box and gasped when I saw the pretty diamond bracelet. I put it on and held my wrist up watching how it sparkled under the light.

"Vincent… its beautiful! How much was it? You really didn't have to spend that much on me."

He shrugged. I watched him lift the framed recipe out of the bag. I watched as Vincent's frown suddenly disappeared. He didn't exactly smile, but his lips straightened out into a more content look. He seemed to put two and two together as what else was in the bag.

"Amaya… forgive me, but I can't accept…"

I instantly cut him off. "I'm not giving you a choice! Plus I trust that you won't tell anyone our secret recipe. See now we are even on secrets."

Vincent looked up at me. His eyes were giving off a weird emotion but I couldn't exactly read it. He stood as if he were going to leave so I stood just as fast. He stopped in front of me, towering over me by almost a foot. He frowned again and lowered his head so his hair covered most of his face.

"Vincent…" I gently touched his arm making him flinch and step back. I took another step forward.

"No one's ever…done something like this for me." He said not lifting his head to look at me. I was quiet for a while not really knowing the right words to say without sounding too intimate. I didn't want to attempt to hug him again. I might just end up being thrown to the floor again. I was thankful when he spoke again.

"I don't know how to accept such kindness."

I took a step closer so our bodies were only inches apart. I looked up at him trying hard to see his eyes under all that hair. I smiled up at him and gave him a light pat on the shoulder. "Just sit back and take it. I won't think of you as ungrateful or anything."

He didn't say anything for a while so I attempted to say something else, but as soon as I opened my mouth a quiet yelp escaped as I was suddenly pulled close to his warm body. One of his arms was wrapped high around my shoulders and his right hand was pressed against my lower back.

He didn't say anything, and didn't even move a muscle. I couldn't even feel his heart beating or hear him breathing. As soon as I tried to wrap my arms around him, he pulled away. How come he's allowed to hug me but I'm not allowed to hug him?!

"Didn't think you were the huggable type…"

"I'm not." He said quickly. His face was already turned away from me. I leaned over a little and thought I saw a flush of red crossing those pale cheeks. I laughed tackled him with a hug from behind. He broke out of it and turned to me with a glare.

"Sorry." I said lowering my head like a puppy. Vincent walked passed me to the door.

"Are we not going grocery shopping?" he said facing the door as if he were talking to it instead of me. I skipped up behind him.

"Of course! Are we taking your car?"

He opened the door and I locked it after us. "If you want."

"Can I drive?" Vincent came to a complete stop and turned to me. He dug in his pockets and handed me the keys. I gave a squeal of excitement and skipped ahead of him.

When I first sat down in his car I tried to make sure I knew where everything was. My car was set up totally different. Vincent watched me closely.

"Are you sure you want to drive?"

I started the car and switched gears. The gas petal was so sensitive my light tap sent us flying backwards almost into the row of cars parked behind us.

"Stop. I'm driving." He didn't let me say another word before opening his door and getting out. The ride to the grocery store was loud. Of course not with conversation, but I was testing out the awesome system in his car. I saw what I thought to be an impossible sight of Vincent tapping his fingers on the steering wheel and slightly nodding his head every once in a while to the beat. I contained my giggling all the way there, but once the music shut off I let a few slip. Vincent ignored it and got out of the car, walking towards the store and not even waiting for me. I ran to catch up to him.

The store was thankfully pretty much empty. It was like fifteen degrees today so I took it most people were at home sitting on top of their heaters. Vincent wasn't even wearing a jacket and didn't seem affected at all by the cold. We ended up buying way more than pizza ingredients. It wasn't just me adding things to the cart. Vincent was guilty too. That man has no self control in the candy aisle.

"What are you doing?" I asked once we got to the cash register and I saw Vincent pull out a hundred dollar bill.

"The last time I was here you had to pay for groceries. Has that changed?" he said in his monotone. Had I not known Vincent a little better I would have taken him seriously. I gave him a soft shove as I walked passed him and grabbed a pack of gum. He retaliated by pushing the cart into me. I glared at him, but he just looked away studying the magazines as if he had done nothing. Just you wait Vincent Valentine.

Once back at the apartments I immediately started on the pizza. The oven that was preheated made the kitchen so hot I had to shed some clothing. I took off my sweater leaving me in only a small white tank top. And I changed my pants into some long grey shorts that I was pretty sure were Trace's. I pulled my hair up into a messy bun to keep pieces of it from falling into the food.

Vincent sat at the kitchen table watching me quietly. I still hadn't got him back for hitting me with the cart. He watched closely as I tossed the dough around making it into a big round circle. I had no idea what I was doing so it turned out as more of an oval. This is when Vincent finally stood and offered his help. I watched him in amazement as he made the perfect shaped pizza.

"Vincent, did you use to work in a pizza parlor?" I smiled up at him.

He raised an eyebrow at me before asking. "Does it look like _I _used to work at pizza parlor?"

I laughed. Wow he does have a sense of humor! We silently applied all the toppings and Vincent put it in the oven. While he was bent over in front of the oven I sprinkled shredded cheese all in his hair. He spun around so fast after shutting the oven door that half of the cheese fell out and onto the floor. I ran into the living room not even giving him a change to retaliate this time. However Vincent was a lot faster than I thought and he was carrying the whole bag of cheese.

"Vincent please don't… that's gonna make such a mess."

"Oh but sprinkling it on me didn't?" he said walking closer and closer. His eyes were lit up with mischief. I had to stop myself from thinking dirty thoughts about my 'friend' here. He stuck his hand in the bag and threw a hand full of cheese in my face. That's all it took before it was on. I dove at him only to hit his chest and fall back on the ground. I watched Vincent fight off the smirk that threatened to cross his emotionless face. I stood up again and literally jumped on him. He lifted me in the air and threw me down on the couch. He dusted his hands off and walked back into the kitchen like it was nothing.

I walked in there to witness Vincent smirking to himself.

"You know, I used to think your face was stuck in a permanent frown."

He showed me a mock glare followed by a tiny lift of the corner of his lips. I took this as a Vincent smile. I grinned and couldn't help attacking him with a hug. He grabbed my shoulders and pushed into the refrigerator. It didn't hurt, but he didn't do it gently by any means.

"Don't touch me, human." He said looking back at me with that same Vincent smile. If you can call that a smile at all. It came and went so fast each time I would forget what it looked like.

"Ok, creature." I grinned at him to show I was only kidding. He didn't seem to be offended. After our pizza was finished we sat in the kitchen and ate it quietly. I wasn't being quite on purpose, but was secretly planning my next move because I was currently losing the battle. Vincent however was just naturally quiet.

I think we both over ate because afterwards all we could do was lounge on the couch. Vincent was even letting me lay my head on his shoulder. I think this was partially because he was half asleep. I kept seeing his head drop slightly every once in a while, then he would shift around as if trying to wake himself up only to doze off again. After about a half hour he was fully passed out with his head resting on top of mine. I snuggled against him and within minutes was passed out as well.

∞∞

I woke up to the loud ringing of my cell phone. I knew it was Trace of course because of that personalized ringer. Vincent surprisingly was still sleep. He was now laying against the pillow instead of my head.

"Hello?"

"What's up babe? I'm in town actually I'm parked outside can I come up and hang out with you?" Oh shit! I looked over at the sleeping man on my couch. Trace is going to die!

"Uh…yeah sure. Just uh…give me a few minutes I'm not even dressed." I shook Vincent's shoulder as hard as I could but he wouldn't wake up. Shit!!!

"Babe, it ain't nothin I haven't seen before. I'm comin up now, ok? Bye."

"Wait!" It was too late Trace had already hung up the phone. I shook Vincent again only to receive a groan. "Vincent!!" I practically screamed. His eyes shot open and he looked at me like I had lost my mind.

I then froze once I heard a knock at the door. "Oh my God! What am I going to do?! That's Trace!" I whispered loudly. "If he sees another guy in here he'll flip!"

"Trace?"

"My boyfriend!" I whispered again.

"The one that stood you up?" Vincent said in a normal nonchalant voice. He didn't seem the tiniest bit worried about anything.

"Babe! I'm here!" I heard Trace yell. I looked back at the door then sent a pleading look towards Vincent.

**For those of you that don't know how Trace got back in the picture. There's a part in the last chapter or the one before it where Amaya explains that he had called her and the excuse was that his boss called him in last minute that's y he stood her up. And it also said she didn't want to go through Christmas without a bf that's y she stuck with Trace. I ****prolly**** should ****of**** wrote like a dialogue for that whole part but really didn't feel the need to.**


	10. Assault

**Apartment 102**

**Assault**

My heart was literally pounding out of my chest as I watched Vincent grab his gift and stand. He walked to my front door as nonchalant as ever and pulled it open. Trace and Vincent eyed each other for a good minute before either of them said anything. Of course Trace was the first to speak.

"Who the fuck are you?" He asked taking a step into Vincent's personal space. Vincent had already been glaring at him since he opened the door, but his face suddenly softened.

"Trace is it?" He asked in a calm voice.

"Yeah. I'm Amaya's boyfriend." Trace said rather defensively.

Vincent nodded. "I've heard quite a bit about you. I'm Amaya's neighbor. I came briefly to exchange gifts with her." I was so shocked at how civil Vincent was acting in front of the steaming Trace.

"The vampire!?" Trace then took his first look at me. He ran to me and examined my neck closely. Vincent said nothing and quickly made his exit.

"Babe, what the fuck are you doing!?" he asked loudly.

"He's my neighbor, Trace. We were just exchanging gifts." I crossed my arms and looked up at him. He just shook his head and ran a hand down his face.

"Whatever… So besides letting vampires in your house what else have you been doing? I knew havin you go to school up here was a bad idea." He sat down on my couch, kicked his feet up on the coffee table and turned on the TV. I plopped down next to him in the spot that Vincent left. His scent was still there.

"He's not even a vamp.."

"Then what the fuck is he, Amaya!? Red eyes, pale skin, black hair… bingo he's a vampire!" he threw his hands up in the air. I sighed loudly and focused my attention on the TV.

"Sorry…for yellin at you…babe." He said after nearly ten minutes of silence. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. I closed my eyes as he stroked my hair. I silently accepted his apology and fell asleep with him.

∞∞

I woke up the next morning lying alone in the bed Trace and I had shared the night before. He left a note on my mirror that he had to run and would call me later. Most of the 'call u laters' meant never, so I threw the note in the trash rolling my eyes at it. I should have known there was only one reason he came to see me…

I really just wanted to call Vincent and let him know how grateful I am that he handled the situation yesterday so calmly, but I knew he was probably still dead asleep. I loved not having class, it gave me so much free time. I got my closets organized, my laundry done, and my clutter picked up. I watched two movies and hung out with Rena and Lunaz for a couple of hours. At around seven o'clock at night I felt that it was late enough to bug Vincent so instead of calling I walked right over to his apartment and knocked on the door. I grabbed a hand and my scarf off of the coat hanger just incase I would have to look around outside.

Vincent answered in less than ten seconds. "I was just on my way out."

"Out where?" I walked beside him as he started down the hallway. He was in all black again today, but that was no surprise.

"Anywhere." His spoke in a distant voice. I walked beside him as he led the way out of the apartment buildings and down the side walk. Once we passed the parking lot I had to ask again where we were going.

"Just walk." He replied in that same voice. I trust Vincent. At least…I think I trust him. Vincent seemed to sense my paranoia and reached out and grabbed my wrist. Anyone who passed by would think he was dragging me off somewhere. We finally came to a park with a huge lake. It had been freezing the passed few weeks so it was solid ice. It was flurrying now as we walked. Vincent wore a long sleeved black shirt and black pants with black gloves on both hands. I had on a hoodie and jeans along with my pink scarf and hat.

"It's snowing." I said as the flurries turned into bigger flakes falling at a faster rate. Vincent stopped and looked up at the sky. He blinked as a flake hit his pointed noise. His pale skin reminded me of a porcelain doll. We walked passed the lake and sat down at a picnic table.

"I come here often." He said. "During the winter… and watch the snow fall."

I smiled and scooted closer to him. I was happy he was willing to share one of his hobbies with me. I then remembered what I came looking for him for. "Thanks for saving me yesterday."

"It was nothing…" he said. He always says that when I thank him for something. I scooted even closer to him trying to absorb some body heat. He didn't seem to mind. We sat there silently watching the snow fall for a good hour. I was now officially freezing, teeth chattering and all. Vincent was completely oblivious to the cold temperature. I scooted one more inch closer and surprisingly Vincent put his arm around me.

"I forgot…"

"What?" I asked.

"…that your body is sensitive to temperature. I've lost that feeling." I had to look up and see if it was really Vincent Valentine I was sitting next to.

"You don't feel the cold?" Then it occurred to me that he probably couldn't feel intense heat either and that's why he could withstand such an extreme fever like he had that one night.

"No." he whispered. We both jumped slightly as my cell phone rang. I hurried and answered it knowing it was Trace.

"Babe? Answer your door I'm outside." I froze and turned to Vincent. Another pleading look crossed my face. He sighed very loudly and stood up from the picnic table.

"Uh…Trace I'm taking out the trash I'll be there in a second, ok?" I heard him sigh loudly on the other end. What's with these men and their impatient sighs?

"Hurry up!" he said before hanging up. Vincent led me in the direction of home.

"I adore you, I hope you know that." I said. Vincent didn't respond. I really didn't want to inconvenience Vincent and make him go out of his way to make sure Trace isn't mad at me, but what else could I do at this point. Vincent agreed to hang around the outside for a while so I could greet Trace alone.

I was on my way up the stairs while Trace was coming down them. He had on a huge bulky light grey coat with grey fur on the hood along with dark blue jeans.

"I just came by to say hey." He said scooping me up into a hug and kissing my cheek. We both froze as we heard a growling noise in the distance. He turned his head sharply to the right.

"What the hell was that noise!? They let you have dogs here?" he asked. I swallowed hard knowing just what that noise was.

"Let's get in your car." I said suddenly. Trace wasted no time in letting go of me and running to his car. We both quickly shut our doors. It was so quiet we could hear each other breathing. All of a sudden we felt the car shake. The winged creature I knew as Vincent jumped up from under the car and was pulling on the door as if to rip it off its hinges.

"Start the car. Trace, start the car!!" I screamed. Trace was frozen with fear as he stared into the glowing yellow eyes of the creature outside of his window. Vincent's other form succeeded in ripping the door off of Trace's car. I hurried and opened my car door I got out of the car and stood back a couple of feet.

"Vincent! Vincent stop this! Get control of yourself!" I yelled as I watched him throw Trace from the car to the ground. He clawed away at Trace's face and chest. Trace managed to block his face from getting hurt, but I could already see blood on his light grey jacket.

"Stop please!" I begged taking another step closer. Vincent suddenly stopped and looked up at me with those glowing eyes. He cringed and brought his claw to his chest. I watched as the creature had transformed back into that familiar form. He took a few deep breaths and stood. I watched as he slightly swayed to the side and had to swat down to prevent himself from just falling out on the concrete. I looked back at the unconscious Trace. Blood poured out of the cuts on his arms. I grabbed my cell phone with unsteady hands and called an ambulance.

∞∞

I sat alone in the hospital room with Trace. It was now coming close to two in the morning. I stared at his motionless form. The doctors had yet to tell me his condition. They had only told me to call then when he awoke. I jumped slightly as I felt a hand rest on my shoulder. I turned my head sharply to see Vincent Valentine standing there.

I looked away from him. I know it's not his fault… It's not him that does this. I squeezed my eyes shut and kept repeating these thoughts in my head.

"I guess you'll be moving out now." A deep voice said from behind me. I looked at him again. Couldn't he at least show a bit of sympathy? Look at what he had done. His face remained emotionless and he didn't even take one look at Trace.

"N..no…I don't have anywhere to go." I whispered turning back to the sleeping figure on the bed. I had already formulated my excuse if he woke up with Vincent in here. 'I had to call my neighbor to help because I didn't know what to do.'

"I don't want to do this to you. I don't…want to do it to anyone. That's why I scare off the people who dare to live around me." I watched as he took his first look at Trace. "Will he live?"

"I think so…" I said softly. Vincent took a seat in the chair next to mine.

"I've let you stay too long. You must leave." He stared straight ahead at Trace. He wasn't wearing that gauntlet or a glove and I then realized why he kept that hand covered. Every single one of his fingernails were gone and there were tons of scars on his wrist. I gasped upon seeing the scars.

"Vincent…did you do that to yourself?" I asked reaching out to touch his wrist only to have him jerk his hand away from me.

"…before I realized no matter what I did I couldn't die…" He sighed. I watched a pained expression cross his features for a brief moment. I leaned towards him and rested my head on his shoulder.

"I know it must be hard…I wish there was something I could do for you…"

"You can't." Vincent said quickly. "So just leave me alone. Get out of those apartments."

"I can't."

"I'll give you as much money as you need."

I paused for a moment. Not because I was considering taking money from Vincent, but because I just didn't know what to say. I didn't want to leave him alone. Something about him just draws me to him. Trace stirred causing us both to turn our heads in his direction. When he settled again we both let out relieved sighs.

"You're my friend, Vincent. I care about you. I'm not leaving you. You can control that creature, I know you can. When you heard me say 'Stop please,' you came through." He turned to me. His crimson eyes darted around my face. I watched as his eyes landed on my lips.

"His name is Chaos." He said not taking his eyes away from my lips. "It…takes so much out of me to try and stop him…" I licked my lips and leaned closer to him.

"I promised I'd take care of you anytime you got really sick." Finally his eyes met mine again. He leaned closer to me and brought his unharmed hand to my face.

"Why…?" he touched my face so gently as if he thought it would break. He then let his fingers hover about a millimeter away from my cheek as he finished his question. "Why do you care?"

I rested my hand on top of his pressing it closer to my face. "I…I'm a caring person." I watched as Vincent's eyes slowly shut and he brought my face closer to his. I closed my eyes as well. My heart was racing.

Suddenly Trace groaned causing Vincent and I to open our eyes and shoot away from each other as if we had both just touched fire. Vincent stood and walked out of the room before I could even say anything else. I watched as Trace slowly awoke. I hurried and called the doctor as I was ordered to. I couldn't stop thinking about how Vincent's fingertips felt on my face and how he almost…well it seemed like he was almost gonna…kiss me. Vincent must really be having some conflicting thoughts going through his mind.


	11. Start of a Friendship

**Apartment 102**

**Start of a Friendship**

Yet again weeks went by and I didn't see any of Vincent. I had even been walking around outside at night looking for him and saw no sign of him. The image of him nearly kissing me wouldn't leave my mind for nothing. Trace was nearing a full recovery and was back at home. The second semester of college had started and I was once again piled with homework. This semester I took on 17 credit hours which was clearly a mistake. Now it was me who was the one neglecting Trace. He would call every night and I would either not have time to talk, or I just didn't answer because I was so busy.

Tonight Rena, Lunaz and I who were all in the same English class sat around my living room in our pajamas writing our thirty page paper. I honestly could not find thirty pages worth of information on the small book I chose to read.

"Ah….I hate writing papers!!" Rena suddenly exclaimed throwing herself on the floor on the pillow she had lying behind her. I sighed loudly pushed my lap top away from me.

"Me too. This sucks!" I whined.

"Go bring your hot neighbor over here." Rena grinned mischievously. My eyes widened instantly.

"You really think Vincent is hot?"

Lunaz looked confused. "Who's Vincent?"

"My neighbor, the guy who stopped by the last time we were having a girl's night. Remember him?"

Her eyes lit up and she smiled. "Oh yes, he is quite handsome. I don't like long hair much…but on him it works!" The three of us giggled like little girls then both Rena and Lunaz stared at me.

"What?" I asked looking back and forth between them.

"Go get him." Rena through her pillow at me. "I want to flirt with a guy."

I received the pillow right in the face. I through it back at her, but she was smart enough to duck. "He's not the type of guy you can just flirt with." I stood up and straightened out my pajama pants. I smoothed down my hair and pushed my bangs over to the side.

"We'll see." Rena grinned up at me as I walked passed her to the door. I opened it and cross the hallway to Vincent's door. I knocked on it a few times and waited for him to answer.

"No one's home." A deep voice said from behind me. I spun around to see Vincent standing there wearing his creepy looking red cloak and black clothes.

"Hey Vincent!" I smiled up at him. He didn't smile back but continued to stare down at me with a cold expression. His cheeks were slightly flushed and I knew he wasn't blushing as there was nothing currently for him to be blushing about.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"I don't feel well and you're blocking my path." His voice sounded kind of weak and I could now see the tiredness in his eyes. He must have been outside trying to hold Chaos in.

"Oh…sorry…uh…wanna come sit at my place? I'll make you green tea that way you don't have to use up your ingredients." I grinned up at him praying he'd accept my offer. He turned around and looked through my open door.

Rena and Lunaz waved and giggled. He turned back to me with a deeper frown on his face.

"It seems you have company."

"Well, the more the merrier." I said yanking up his arm and pulling him into my apartment, slamming the door behind us. I let go of him and took a step back from him. I unbuckled his cloak and threw it over my coat rack. Vincent brought his gauntlet to his face touching where the fabric that had covered his mouth had suddenly been removed. He followed me into the kitchen and sat down in a chair watching me as I quickly started preparing his tea. Rena and Lunaz weren't far behind.

Rena boldly took the seat next to Vincent. "You don't look so good, are you sick again?" When he didn't reply she put a hand to his forehead.

"Wow! You're so hot! I…I mean…you've got a really high fever…"she said. I watched as her and Lunaz exchanged goofy smiles.

Vincent turned to her. "Does it really feel that warm?" I glanced at him almost not believing he had actually spoken to Rena. I must be bringing out the social butterfly in him.

"Yea dude. You were serious about not be able to die, because I'm pretty sure with a fever that bad you'd be near death." Rena actually sounded really concerned about him. Lunaz looked at them both with wide eyes. She finally asked.

"You can't die?" she sounded completely appalled.

She was sitting across from Vincent so all he had to do was look up to catch her eyes. "No, I can't."

"Wow!" Sometimes Lunaz can be a little air headed. "So like…you'll live forever?"

Vincent nodded. I smiled down at him as I placed the red mug in front of him. I sat on the other side of him. I looked past him at Rena and we exchanged grins.

"So you got a girlfriend." Rena elbowed Vincent lightly. She laughed her contagious laugh causing me and Lunaz to join in. That seemed to make Vincent uncomfortable. He stood up and grabbed his green tea carrying it into the living room. The three of us followed him in there.

"You didn't answer me." Rena said poking his shoulder. He drank his tea silently and ignored her presence. Rena continued to bug him until he finally left taking my mug with him. I warned Rena that Vincent wasn't exactly the kind of guy you can flirt with.

∞∞∞

The next day I got home late from hanging out at Lunaz's place. She lived with her parents in a huge house with an inside swimming pool and everything. We spent more time touring her house than we did doing homework. I was quite envious of her lifestyle. I adjusted the strap of my heavy bag as I walked down the hallway. I noticed Vincent's door cracked open. He would _never_ intentionally do this. I slowly pushed the door fully open and stepped inside closing it behind me. I sat my bag down on the floor by the door and apprehensively walked further into his apartment. I heard coughing and other disturbing noises coming from the bathroom.

"Vincent?" I asked as I walked down his dark hallway. The bathroom door was cracked open also. It was the only source of light in his hallway. I stood outside of the door and called his name again. I only heard more coughing and vomiting. I cringed before opening the door.

I gasped at what I saw. Vincent sat on the floor shirtless with his face in the toilet. There was blood on the floor and in the sink and on the toilet seat. There were beads of sweat on his back causing strings of his black hair to stick to him.

"I can't stop." He said before spitting more blood into the toilet. He reached up and flushed it quickly before I could see the contents, not that I would have looked anyways I was already grossed out enough, but this was my friend here and he obviously needed help.

I grabbed some paper towels and wetted them before wiping up the blood on the floor. The metallic odor of blood filled the room. I threw away the paper towels then slowly knelt beside Vincent. Not only was he spitting up blood, but it was flowing freely from his nose.

I gently placed a hand on his back. He was so warm it almost hurt to touch him. "Tilt your head back." I said. I reached out and grabbed some toilet paper. I held it up to his nose with one hand and used more sheets to wipe the blood off of his mouth. He took a few deep breaths then brought his hand up over mind attempting to hold the tissues on his own. I pulled my hand away and let him old it there himself. He sat there for a while breathing heavily while I gently patted his back and stroked his damp hair. His eyes were filled with fear and his hands were shaking.

"What happened?"

"Someone hurt Chaos…therefore…I suffer. All this…it's his blood…" he spoke in a weak voice that I barely recognized as his.

"Can someone ever kill Chaos?" I asked I leaned back against the wall. Vincent followed and leaned against me.

"He'll take my life, then revive me. Chaos will never die…I can never die…" He wiped his nose a few last times with the toilet paper then threw it away. I helped him to his feet and into his bedroom. I turned on the dim light in there so I could see where his bed was. He got himself under the covers and laid on his back he turned his face towards me. He didn't have his bandana on so he looked very different. His crimson eyes studied my face for the longest time before he said anything.

"Please…could you bring me some water?"

I nodded quickly and hurried to his kitchen to get his water. When I returned with his water he was sitting on the side of the bed holding his stomach as if he were going to have a few more toilet visits.

"Are you ok?" I asked him as I sat beside him and gave him his water. He drank the glass quickly and sat the glass on his bed. I gently rubbed his back trying to comfort him, but it didn't seem to soothe anything.

"Leave…get out…he's…" before he could finish I watched as huge black wings shot out of his back. Vincent's body began to glow a red color and I watched as he transformed into what I knew now as Chaos.

"Chaos…"I whispered as I shot off the bed and stood up against the closet door. The creature turned and faced me. Instead of the fierce look I normally saw in this creature's eyes, I saw a pained expression. His eyes didn't glow as bright and seemed to be fading. Someone had indeed hurt it. It cried out and flapped its wings a couple of times. The wind from the wings was so strong it blew Vincent's tiny lamp off of the end table. It hit the floor and went out leaving me alone in the darkness with Chaos. My heart was beating out of my chest and I could hardly breath I was so scared.

I heard him cry again and there was more wind. I then heard a cry that sounded more like a human. The human cry was followed by heavy breathing.

"Vincent?"

"Are you ok?" he asked. I heard footsteps and before I knew it the room was lit again by the dim lamp. Vincent sat it back up on the end table and walked towards me. He moved as if he wasn't in any pain at all.

"I'm fine…but you…"

"I'm ok now. It's over now." He looked me up and down. I knew he was only checking to see if he had hurt me in Chaos's form, but it still made me slightly uncomfortable. It's not even like I was under dressed or anything. I had a pink hoodie and grey pants. My hair was down, and I still had my pink hat on.

"That scared me…" I whispered.

Vincent looked down as if he was ashamed of something. "Now can you see why I don't want you around?"

"You've never hurt me, though." I looked down at the dark grey carpet.

"Not yet." Vincent looked up at me as he took a step closer. "Chaos gets his thrills from killing people. I can only do so much to stop him."

"I just can't imagine you being all alone…"

"I like it that way." He didn't look me in the eye as he said this which made me think he was lying. I threw my arms around him not even caring how he'd react.

"Everyone needs friends." I murmured to him.

"How can I trust you?" he whispered to me taking me in his arms and resting his head on top of mine. "I've never met anyone in my life that I could trust. Not in sixty years…"

"You can trust me, Vincent." I placed my hands high on his back and pressed him closer to me. He pressed back. My ear was placed against his chest and I could hear two heart beats from within him. He sighed and squeezed me even tighter. I stood there in Vincent's arms for nearly five minutes before he let me go. That moment was the official beginning of our new friendship.

∞∞∞

Over the next month Vincent continuously began to let his guard down around me. He even went out in public with me, but only at night of course. We had a couple more dinner dates, more trips to the park to watch the snow fall, and we even went to a drive in movie together. The movie was a comedy but not once did I see Vincent even crack a smile. I assumed that after being hurt Chaos must have calmed down for a while because throughout that whole month that had passed since I saw Vincent at his worst; he had never gotten sick or anything. All the time I was spending with Vincent was having a negative effect on all my other relationships including mine strong friendship with Rena. She was used to me having nothing to do every night and being ready and willing to go clubbing or whatever with her. After the tenth time in a row that I declined her invitation to go out, we had a little falling out and hadn't spoke since. Trace seemed to have given up on even calling me at all as he hadn't in two weeks. However although those relationships seemed to fall apart, the most important thing to me was building the one I had with Vincent.


	12. Yellow Valentine

**Apartment 102**

**Yellow Valentine**

It had now reached the second weekend of February and I realized that Valentine's Day was coming up. I hadn't heard from Trace in forever so I didn't know whether I should try to call him or what. I was seriously considering spending my Valentine's Day with Vincent _Valentine_. This second semester I carefully chose my class schedule instead of just throwing classes anywhere at any time. So I had Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. Of course this mean I spent my Mondays going to class back to back with little time to rest or eat. Tuesdays weren't so bad I only had two classes, but Wednesdays were no different from Mondays. This year Valentine's Day would fall on a Thursday so I had the whole day off to spend with whoever I wanted.

Today was Monday and I was just getting home from my long day of classes it was after nine o'clock so I expected to see Vincent sitting out in the hall on the couch. Since we've gotten closer he made it a habit to do this every Monday and Wednesday night because these were the only nights I got home this late.

He greeted me with a nod and a slight raise of his eyebrows. This was better than the glares or the 'what are you doing here' looks I used to get. He even stood; ready to let himself into my apartment and lounge on my couch while I made a list of homework that had to be done. He still didn't talk much, unless he was being spoken to, but at least he was coming around more.

"Damn I have to write another ten page research paper on the affects of the Vietnam War on the American people. How am I supposed to make ten pages out of that?!" I complained as I threw myself down on the couch next to Vincent. He sighed and shook his head as if he were disappointed in me.

"What?" I crossed my arms and looked over at him. He was dressed well today for no plans of doing anything. I guess being around me has become so unpredictable he figured he better be dressed accordingly incase I decided to take him somewhere.

"I went to college for six years and wrote many papers over harder topics. Another reason why I joined the Turks was they paid for my education and for the 'Turk Training'." He said using his fingers to mark the quotes. I smirked at this. Vincent wasn't usually this animated when he spoke.

"Wanna write this one?" I grinned up at him and turned my lap top towards him. It had a whole title and opening sentence written. Along with my name, class, and date. Vincent surprisingly took the lap top from me and placed it on his lap.

"Where are your resources?" he asked after he had already begun typing. I handed him a book and some papers I had printed off of the internet with a long article about Americans during the Vietnam War.

"Don't make it sound too great or the professor won't think I wrote it. Make at least one grammar error and a few spelling errors." I leaned towards him watching what he wrote. Vincent never struck me as an uneducated person, but I didn't expect him to be so connected with worldly events. After watching him for about a half hour, I fell asleep with my head against his shoulder and when I woke up an hour later I saw that he was typing the conclusion paragraph. His pale fingers moved wildly over my keyboard. He had very good typing skills. I wondered if this was part of his 'Turk training'.

∞∞∞

Tuesdays were my math days. I'm actually pretty good at math I have to admit. After I finished my homework I decided to just go to bed instead of look for Vincent. I had gone the past few days with three hours of sleep trying to keep up with him and trying to make time for Rena as well so she could get over her whole deal of me not wanting to hang out with her anymore.

Wednesday nights I would usually come home loaded with books but I had four days off to do all of this homework so I wasn't stressing. Most of the time on Wednesdays I would just dump my books off on the couch and go hang out with my new friend. Vincent didn't even seem to mind my presence anymore. The one time I had tried to avoid him for a few days as I thought I was annoying him, _he _was the one calling me and asking if everything was ok and how come he hadn't seen me.

∞∞∞

"Happy Valentine's day!" Rena said loudly over the phone. She called me at nine o'clock in the morning to tell me this. I groaned and returned the greeting in a groggy voice. She sure gets over drama quickly. It seemed like just yesterday she was telling me maybe our friendship wasn't going to work.

"So…have you talked to Trace?" she asked. She sure sounded full of energy.

"No."

"So who are you going to spend your Valentine's Day with? Huh? Could it be Mr. _Valentine!!"_ she said loudly laughing afterwards. I blushed and was thankful there was no one in the room to see it. Well I certainly wouldn't be spending most of the day with Vincent considering it's almost impossible to get a hold of him until late in the evening.

"Um…I don't know… Valentine's Day probably isn't his thing. If I mention anything to him about it he'll probably just look at me like I'm dumb or something." I finally said. Rena laughed.

"Well I kinda met a guy too… and it would be super cool if we could all get together and have a Valentine's Day dinner. I know that Vincent doesn't like going out in public so I thought we could all go back to my parents' house and _cook_ them dinner. And I'd say we should leave now so that we can set up the place."

"What about your parents?" I asked. I was close with Rena's mom and dad, they treated me almost like their own child so if I brought a man like Vincent up in their house, they might ask questions.

"They're in Vegas baby." We both laughed. I slid off my bed and headed over to my closet to pick out something to wear. I settled on a red mid sleeved shirt, and a black skirt that reached below my knees. It was still very cold out so I wore my knee high boots as well so none of my legs were exposed. I brushed my hair and added a few waves to it with my bigger curling iron. I swooped my bangs over to one side and smoothed out my eyebrows. I just took my whole make up case with me. There was no use in putting make up on now because it wouldn't last until later on.

∞∞∞

Rena's parent's house was just a couple minutes outside of the city so we didn't have far to go. The must have left for Vegas in a hurry because the place was almost literally turned upside down. I now understood why Rena called me at nine o'clock in the morning for. We spent two hours cleaning up the living room and fixing up the kitchen. We went out and bought red place mats, and red flowers to put in a vase on the table. We sprinkled a little bit of confetti in the shape of little red and silver hearts on the table. Once we were finished setting the table I looked down at it and gasped.

"Rena this is looking really romantic…" I spoke as if that were a bad thing, although Rena's reaction was the complete opposite.

She giggled and clapped her hands. "Yay!"

"No… Vincent and I are just friends. For one it's already gonna look like a double date, and now we've got the place set up all romantically… He's gonna get the wrong idea then probably run away and never speak to me again." I sighed and crossed my arms.

Rena's smile faded. "Oooor he could get the right idea and you guys become more than friends tonight." Her smile expanded again and she rubbed her hands together excitedly.

"That'll never happen… maybe I should just call Trace."

Rena shrugged. "Do what you want girl. If worst comes to worst I've got a couple of cute guys I could have here in a second." She pulled out her cell phone and looked as if she were dialing already. I lunged forward at her and snatched her phone away.

"No…that's ok. I'll just let Vincent know that all this…" I waved my hand around at the romantic table settings. "…is for you guys and we are just the guests."

"Do what you gotta do." She said. We then drove back into the city to gather up the guys. It was still a little too early for me to go looking for Vincent so I sat around my apartment and did nothing for awhile. At around six o'clock I went over and tried the door on Vincent's apartment. It was unlocked so I let myself in and walked into his seemingly empty apartment.

"Vincent?"

I walked down his dark hallway. His bedroom door was wide open but it was pick black in there so I couldn't see anything. I stepped into the darkness and called his name again. I took a couple steps towards where I remember his bed being and my knees hit the mattress sending me on top of a pair of legs. I heard a clicking that resembled a noise a gun would make. Soon I realized it was indeed a gun pointed at my head as I felt the cold metal against my forehead. Vincent reached over and turned his dim lamp on.

"Oh…sorry." He said instantly lowering the gun and putting it back under the pillow he wasn't sleeping on. That was the first gun I had ever seen with three barrels. He must have a strong arm to control a gun that powerful.

"What are you so paranoid about? I don't appreciate having a gun pointed at my head." I asked frowning down at him. I was now sitting on his legs probably cutting the circulation off to his feet.

"Sorry. If I'm going to leave my door unlocked I need to be prepared if someone brakes in." He wouldn't look me in the eye again so I assumed that was some sort of excuse. I never see anyone in this hall except for Vincent and occasionally George, but he hadn't come by in months.

After I didn't say anything for a while, Vincent brought his legs out from underneath me almost sending me off of the bed. "What do you want?" he asked.

"It's Valentine's Day." I said cheerfully only to receive an eye roll. Vincent laid back down on his pillow. "Rena invited us to dinner at her parents' house and we are going so if I were you I'd start getting ready." With that said I stood and left his bedroom.

I came back thirty minutes later to find him sitting on the edge of his bed wearing a pair of black dress pants and no shirt. There was a red buttoned down shirt and a black buttoned down shirt on the floor in front of him. I watched him look at one for a moment then stare at the other for a while. I laughed out loud. Not even I take this long in deciding between two shirts. I bent down and picked up the red one and threw it at him. It landed on his head covering his face. He sat there like that for a while then slowly pulled the shirt off his head. I then took another look at his face.

"Aww are you sick today?" I sat beside him and ran a hand gently down his bare back. He flinched and almost seemed to shudder at my touch. "Sorry." I whispered quickly drawing my hand back. I forgot he wasn't the touchy type. He didn't respond and I couldn't see anymore of his face besides the tip of his nose because of his hair and bandana.

He slowly began to dress himself in the dark red shirt then stood and made his way to the bathroom. He came out of there with his hair looking a bit neater and smelling like cologne. "I'm ready." He said softly.

∞∞∞

Vincent drove us in his car to Rena's parents' house and we arrived there around seven thirty. He dragged himself along beside me as we walked up the few porch steps to the door.

"They're here!!" I heard a man's voice from inside yell. The door then flew open revealing a tall skinny man with fiery, spikey red hair. He turned his head to yell back inside the house and I saw he had a long ponytail that came down to his lower back.

"Hey, I'm Reno." I wanted to burst out laughing. Reno and Rena. A match made in heaven. Vincent didn't make any effort to respond so I quickly stepped up and took the hand he offered and shook it.

"I'm Amaya and this is my friend Vincent."

"Yeah…Rena told me about the whole 'just friends' situation." He blurted loudly. I felt my cheeks flushing but tried to ignore it because the more I'm aware of the fact I'm blushing, the more intense my blush becomes.

The three of us entered the living room and I smiled back at Vincent as I went ahead to the kitchen leaving him behind with Reno. I wasn't sure if that was the greatest idea, but I knew Rena was counting on me to help her with dinner.

She looked almost like a mad scientist in there with pots everywhere, smoke rising, odd smells. I quickly ran over to her and helped her get things straightened out. Once we were finally finished cooking we had an Asian stir fry, chicken and broccoli, fried shrimp, and fresh sushi rolls.

"Guys come on!" Rena yelled. The guys walked in together. Vincent already looked highly annoyed and on the verge of breaking. I expected Chaos to break out and kill us all any minute. I smiled at him and gently pulled him to the chair next to mine. Reno turned his attention off Vincent and to his girl. For him being the 'new guy' they seemed to get along very well. Vincent and I looked down and away from each other as Rena and Reno kissed. I cringed and ran my fingers through my hair a couple of times.

Dinner was fairly quiet except for Reno's random outbursts. One of them included.

"Hey so like are you guys friends with benefits? That's the only kinda friends I know that spend Valentine's Day together." That must have been the fourth time I blushed that night. I quickly shook my head no. Vincent glared daggers at the red head.

Reno waved his hands. "Sorry just asking."

After we finished eating I noticed Vincent already had his keys in his hand and I took that as his signal that he was ready to go and go _now._

After I helped Rena tidy up the kitchen a little bit, I walked over to Vincent who was standing in the corner of the room looking dark and unapproachable. "Well…uh dinner was nice…but we should probably get going, right Vincent?"

He instantly lifted his head and nodded. We quickly made and exit avoiding anymore contact with this 'new guy' Reno. As soon as we took our first step outside I could feel the tension fade away. Vincent even let out a sigh of relief.

The ride back home was completely quiet. I didn't really know what to say to Vincent and it was obvious that Vincent didn't really feel like saying anything. Once he stopped in front of our apartment building I was ready to get out of the car and make a run to my apartment to avoid anymore awkwardness.

"Wait." Vincent said as he shut his car door. He opened the door to the back seat and bent over to get something. He walked up to me with his hand behind his back and once he came within a foot of me he held out a single yellow rose. I smiled wide and took the thornless rose from him. I wondered where he bought it and how he knew yellow meant friendship.

"Thanks Vincent." I whispered still smiling. Vincent lifted a corner of his mouth in his typical Vincent smile before brushing past me. I watched him walk away until he disappeared around the corner. I still had a smile on my face even after he was out of my view.


	13. Puppy Love

**Apartment 102**

**Puppy Love**

Time was flying and before I knew it, it was mid April near my birthday. Vincent and I hadn't been hanging out as much lately as we had before. After receiving that rose on Valentine's Day, I had been feeling a little strange around him anyways. He now had his own personalized ringtone on my cell phone as well and each time I heard it, even though these times were rare, my heart would skip a beat.

Today it was actually taking me a lot of nerve to get up and go over to his place. It was Saturday and I had just come home from grocery shopping and I picked up a small box of doughnuts for Vincent and me to share. I mainly bought them for me, but I wanted to share them with _somebody_ to avoid eating the whole box myself. I opened up my door and was instantly aware of a thunderstorm going on outside as the dark hallway lit up with the lightening outside the window. I jumped at the loud clasp of thunder that followed. It was quite dark outside and it was only seven in the evening so I knew it must be a severe storm.

Vincent opened the door as soon as I approached it, it scared me how he did that sometimes, but I smiled anyways and held the box out to him. Vincent took it and opened it immediately. The tall dark mysterious man was a sucker for sweet stuff.

"Don't eat them all." I warned him. I shut the door behind me and plopped down on his leather couch. Trace's playstation was now hooked up to Vincent's TV because the last couple times we hung out in his apartment we had racing tournaments on the Need for Speed games. It took nearly an hour to teach Vincent how to play, but he eventually caught on and was beating my ass like no tomorrow.

Vincent plopped down beside me and placed the box in between us. "Take one before I do." He said looking down at his now sugar coated fingers. He sucked them all and grabbed another doughnut.

"My birthday is coming up." I said taking a bite out of my first doughnut. There was only three more left in the box now.

"Hmm." Vincent said. He stared at his treat like it was the best thing in the world. I reached out and wiped my sugar coated fingers on his black shirt. He grabbed a hold of my wrist so fast I screamed out in surprise. With his other hand he moved the box to the other side of him. "That's it for you."

"But I bought them." I yanked my wrist out of his grip. He shrugged and proceeded to eat the rest of the doughnuts. Then as he stood he touched my cheek with his sticky sugary fingers. "Eww." I wiped the sugar off right after. I found it odd how Vincent could play around with a frown on his face like that. Even in the funniest moments between us, he kept his face expressionless.

I followed Vincent to his bedroom and hopped on his bed while he went to his closet. He bend down and was digging through some papers or whatever it was, I couldn't really see from where I was sitting. I fluffed up his pillow and buried my face in it. Oh God how I loved that scent. I then noticed something I hadn't seen before. There was a picture frame laying face down on the end table by his bed where his dim lamp sat. I looked back at Vincent who was clearly absorbed in looking for whatever. I lifted the frame and almost had to gasp at what I saw. There was a young man with short black hair in a bluish suit and a woman in a white jacket with a purple blouse. The woman had long light brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Both of them wore genuine smiles and seemed really happy. I then took a closer look at those eyes of the man. Was that… "Vincent!?"

"Hm?" he asked standing up. His eyes widened when he saw what I was holding. I quickly put it back face down and turned to him.

"Uh..nothing…I…uh…" Just shut up Amaya. I rolled my eyes mentally at myself.

"It's ok. Yes that picture is of exactly who you think." He said walking over to the bed. He reached past me and picked the frame up again. He looked at it for a long time. I saw his eyes fill with sadness and I could feel the mood of the whole room drop. The rain even seemed to be beating down harder outside.

I had expected him to whip out his gun and tell me to never touch his things again, but I guess this was a better reaction. He handed the frame back to me to place back where it was sitting. I looked at it for a few more seconds before putting it back.

"I lay it that way to keep from staring at it and wishing I could turn back time." He spoke in a low voice almost near a whisper. He sat with his back against the head board he was only a couple of inches away from me which was making me increasingly nervous with each second that passed. Not to mention, every time Vincent actually is in the mood to share details about his past it makes me a little nervous because I don't want to say anything stupid. I've never been in a situation like his, _obviously_, so it didn't make any sense for me to say 'yeah I understand' or 'oh I know how you feel'. I just remained silent and listened to the rain pour. I finally thought of something decent to say.

"Well…when you find a way to do that, teach me ok? There are some things I'd like to change as well." I looked over at him and smiled. He looked down at me and blinked slowly.

"And what's that?" he asked raising his eyebrows slightly.

"…uh…I don't know. For one, I would have never let myself become so dependent on a guy. I haven't really said anything, and I've tried to ignore it, but… being out here in this new city… living on my own, without Trace there telling me what to do every step of the way… its hard."

"You don't need him." Vincent's words came quickly. He frowned slightly after saying that. "…but who am I to say anything…"

"I know…at times maybe I've annoyed you, but I'm the type of girl that needs someone to cling on to. I mean, of course I have my girls, but… that's different." I noticed Vincent seemed to be getting even closer as our thighs were now touching. Vincent didn't seem to be aware of it as he stared off at the corner of the room. There was suddenly a loud clasp of thunder and the dim light went out leaving me and Vincent in complete darkness. I gasped and just as a reflex reached down and grabbed Vincent's thigh. That made him jump and reach out to quickly remove my hand.

"Vincent I'm scared of the dark." I said.

"Don't be." He replied softly. I heard shuffling behind me.

"Vincent? Don't you dare mess with me right now, I'm serious." I said very seriously. I heard a soft snort of what could have passed for a form of laughter. I'd give anything to have seen the look on Vincent's face then. The sound of high winds could then be heard. That nearly sent me over the edge.

"I'm scared." I whimpered almost ready to cry. "What if that's a tornado?!" I squealed as I felt an arm come around my waist and pull me back onto a warm body.

"Calm down." Vincent spoke in the most soft and gentle voice I had ever heard him speak in. That alone was enough to calm me. I turned my body so that I was facing him. I rested my head on his chest and listened to that unique rhythm of two heartbeats. Before long I started finding it hard to keep my eyes open and soon I surrendered and fell asleep.

∞∞∞

"Amaya…Amaya wake up." I heard as I felt someone shaking my shoulder. I suddenly sat straight up and was face to face with Vincent.

"Storms over." He stated simply. I noticed the lamp was now on again. I looked down at his digital alarm clock it was now almost midnight. "I'm going to go do some investigating."

"For what?" I asked as I hopped off of his bed and followed him down the hallway.

"I want to know exactly who is trying to hurt Chaos. Two nights ago the same man tried to hurt him again. All I can ever do is watch."

"But you can take control." I said almost in a question form. Vincent turned to look down at me.

"I can, but when he gets worked up its much harder. Being trailed and attacked can get a demon worked up quite a bit."

I laughed at his tone of voice. It was almost as if he was trying to make a joke.

"Stay inside tonight." He said turning very serious. I nodded as I looked up at his tall form. He opened up his front door for me, and I took this as a sign that he was ready for me to leave. "Oh…and what did you want for your birthday?"

I grinned. "I want a puppy."

Vincent rolled his eyes and shut his apartment door leaving me in the hallway alone. I pouted at his door for a while before returning to my own apartment. Once inside I realized that I smelt just like Vincent. I couldn't believe I was actually lying with him in his bed with his arm around me! A grin spread across my face and I threw myself down on my couch. Oh…if only that man knew what he was doing to me!

∞∞∞

"…Happy Birthday dear Amaya…happy birthday to you." My group of friend sang before I blew out the nineteen candles on my cake. My miniature birthday party was taking place in the Japanese restaurant that was not too far from the apartments. I invited Vincent to come, but it was obvious he was not going to show. I had half of the restaurant to myself for two whole hours. They were even playing upbeat Japanese music instead of the traditional stuff they usually had playing in there.

"Yo…where's your buddy Vincent?" Reno asked as he approached me from behind. He had a sloppy grin plastered across his face and a bottle of sake in his hand.

"He's probably not coming. Parties aren't really his thing…"

"Amaya Vincent's here!!" Rena cried out as she ran up to me and yanked me by my wrist. Of course he was standing outside refusing to come inside, but at least he did show.

"Hey Vincent." I said smiling at him and going for a hug. He grabbed my arms and gently placed them back down by my side.

"I have something for you back at the apartments. Please hurry before it…gets out of hand." He looked around at some of the other people standing outside of the place. He received many odd stairs as he actually came all the way over here wearing that gauntlet.

"Ok…it might be another hour, though." I said receiving a loud sigh from him. He nodded and quickly made an exit.

Everyone was grinning at me as I walked back into the restaurant.

"Wooo hooo! Good bye Trace, Hello Vincent!" Rena yelled loudly. My face turned twenty different shades of red. I shook my head no, but some of the other people had already joined her wooing and awing. "Why'd you have to go outside? Huh? Did he give you a birthday kiss?" Rena pressed while poking me in the ticklish portion of my side.

I jerked myself away from her. "No! We're just friends. He doesn't like public places so he wouldn't come inside." I could tell Rena was a little tipsy as well. Reno who was over 21 was able to buy alcohol and snuck her far too many sips. She wasn't usually this annoying. I spent the rest of the time being taunted and teased about my 'new boyfriend'. I thanked God Vincent didn't actually walk up in here that would have been torture. I'm highly afraid that if he actually thinks I like him in any other way that just friends, he'll stop speaking to me. I don't want that.

∞∞∞

I got back to the apartments at around ten o'clock. I went straight over to Vincent's apartment. Vincent was sitting on the couch holding the _cutest little_ light brown Pomeranian puppy I had ever seen.

"Aww!!" I said as I rushed over to him scaring the puppy a little bit. Vincent handed the tiny thing to me.

"I don't see how this little thing could get out of hand." I said looking at its cute little innocent eyes. "Aww!!!" I could see Vincent rolling his eyes out of the corner of my eye.

"What?! It's cute."

"She." He corrected. He stood up and went to the kitchen. He came back with a box full of what I assumed would be supplies I'd need to take care of her. He explained to me some of the things I would have to do, as if I didn't already know how to take care of a puppy. I dismissed his instructions by saying 'yeah' 'uh huh' and 'yeah' over again although I wasn't even listening. I couldn't get over how cute she was.

"Name her." He said reaching over and petting her head with his index finger. She instantly wriggled out of my grip and hopped back over to him.

"Aww she likes you. Her name is Yume."

Vincent frowned down at her. "I'm not your owner."

"Yea you are. Let's share her." I was thinking about saying she could be like our child, but I knew that was too intimate. Vincent placed the puppy back in my lap and stood once again.

"Do as you wish… by the way…how old are you today?"

It had occurred to me many times that even physically Vincent was still quite a bit older than me. "I'm nineteen."

"So young." He muttered to himself.

"You say that now… what are you going to say to me on my fiftieth birthday?" I grinned at him. He gave me one of his rare Vincent half smiles.

"My you're getting old." He said nonchalantly. I threw one of his sofa pillows at his face. The hostility seemed to scare poor little Yume. I scooped her up in my arms and kissed her little head.

"Well I'm gonna go get little Yume settled into her new home. I'll talk to you later, old man."

"Happy Birthday, little girl." He said watching me walk out of his door. I stuck my tongue out at him before shutting the door. I then opened it again.

"Thanks for the puppy, Vincent. I'll love you forever for this."

"You had better." I tried not to take what he said literally because I didn't really mean what I had said literally…or did I? Am I in love with Vincent?


	14. Wrath of Chaos

**Apartment 102**

**Wrath of Chaos**

Vincent had been pretty busy with trying to find out who was after Chaos. So busy in fact that we hadn't spoken in a whole week. The weather was getting nicer and I was looking forward to putting my new mission in action. This new mission was to get Vincent out in public during the day. Even if it was just to go fly a kite or something. Finals were coming up within the next couple of weeks and then school would be out for the summer. I absolutely couldn't wait for that, but no school meant summer job and that would be bad.

Tonight was Thursday I had just come home from Lunaz's place. I was a little nervous getting out of my car. Vincent warned me he'd be letting Chaos out every night trying to catch this person whose mission is to hurt Chaos. I opened my door slowly and listened to see if I could hear any strange noises. When I was satisfied thinking that nothing was out there, I pushed my door further open and got out of my car. Not even a millisecond after I shut my car door I was knocked to the ground by a strong wind. I stayed on the ground afraid to move.

"Hey lady move!" a man yelled. I looked up and saw a man dressed in all black with a black hat pulled down over his face. I heard footsteps behind me and within seconds I was yanked up by two clawed hands.

"Vi..vincent…please stop…" I whimpered quietly. Chaos whipped me around to face him. He growled showing off his fangs. The man dressed in black pulled out a gun and shot at him. Chaos ducked missing the bullet only by centimeters. This action enraged Chaos causing him to throw me roughly at a nearby car. I was thrown at such a high speed, my body broke the back windshield of the car leaving me unconscious and bleeding in the backseat of a stranger's car.

∞∞∞

A throbbing pain consumed my head. I was awake, yet could not open my eyes or move. A beeping noise could be heard somewhere near me. Where was I? I heard a low mumbling of human voices. As I tried harder to focus, the voices became clearer.

"It's not your fault Vincent…" Rena? What was she doing here? Here…again where am I? Wait did she say Vincent? What are Rena and Vincent doing in the same place?

The throbbing pain suddenly intensified greatly, but I didn't move or make a sound.

"I let this happen to her…" Vincent… His voice sounded different. It almost held _emotion_.

"Vincent, tell me the truth… are you two seeing each other?" I was now well aware of my surroundings and the events of the other night.

"No…but…I…" But what Vincent but _what?!_ I was now fully capable of opening my eyes and letting them know I was awake but this was getting too good. I stayed relaxed and waited for Vincent's delayed response. I could tell he was sitting very close to me because I could now smell his familiar scent.

Footsteps could then be heard followed by the most annoying high pitch female voice I had ever heard. "Is she awake yet?" she sure as hell sounded impatient. I heard people moving around me then finally I felt a touch to my arm. I became aware that my left arm was in a cast, it was throbbing too, but not as nearly as bad as my head was.

"Amaya…" My heart felt as if it were about to break at the sound of Vincent's desperate tone. I let my eyes flutter open. Vincent and Rena both had their chairs pulled up beside my bed. Rena looked as if she had just got out of bed herself. Her short hair was pulled back into a tiny ponytail with her bangs clipped back at the top of her head. Vincent looked a little rough, but was dressed nicely. He was closest but Rena's chair was only an inch from his. His eyes lit up slightly when as he watched me 'wake up'. He then looked away in shame. Rena put a hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly at him. He stood and left the room. I was then faced with the annoying nurse. Her appearance was quite the opposite than I had expected. She was a very pretty young girl with long blond hair and eyes so blue they matched the sky, but then she opened her mouth again making me forget all of that.

"We need you to eat something, ok? Here's some yogurt." I _hate_ yogurt. I smiled faintly as she placed the yogurt on the table next to me. She adjusted the table so that it was over me, and without warning she adjusted my bed so that it pushed me into a sitting position. I reached for the glass of water and quickly drank half of the cup. "Dr. Gonzales will be in shortly to explain your situation." She then took off. I heard her say to Vincent as she passed him outside the room. "I assure you she will be just fine, sir." I didn't hear a response from him.

I looked over at Rena. She smiled at me and sat the spoon in my yogurt and pushed it towards me. I frowned in disgust. "You know I hate yogurt."

"Yeah, but you need to eat something." She said. "Hold on I'm gonna go get Vincent. He's really upset." She stood up from her chair and turned her back to me.

"Wait. Uh… what all did he have to say?" I asked in a whisper. She took a quick look outside the room then came back inside.

"For some reason he thinks this is all his fault. He said something about warning you that you'd get hurt hanging around him. You've been out for almost twenty four hours and he sat here watching you almost the whole time. Reno was here earlier and he whispered to me that he thinks Vincent thinks more of you thank _just_ a friend." She spoke in a normal voice so I assumed that Vincent wasn't right outside the room. At least he had better not have been.

I smiled a little. "I don't think Vincent wants to be more than friends. If I hadn't strongly insisted on it, we wouldn't even be friends. He's just…well _deep_ down he's just a really nice guy. He thinks that just because I've done a few favors for him in the past that he owes me so much."

Rena frowned slightly and sighed. "Well, I think you two would be cute together. Have you asked him what his nationality is? He looks like he could even have some Asian in him." She laughed quietly afterwards. I let one laugh slip and it felt as if my rib cage had busted open. I winced and groaned in pain.

"You ok?" Rena asked. I nodded and sat up a little. I guess I would have to eat some of this disgusting yogurt. Besides the fact that my head was throbbing, I was feeling a little light headed from the lack of food.

"Well I'm going to go find Vincent, then I'm gonna go to work, ok? I'll come see you really soon after, though." I smiled and nodded at her. I found the little button near the bed that turned on the TV. I did so and turned it to the music channel. It was nearly ten minutes before I heard footsteps coming into the room. Vincent walked slowly with his head down. He apprehensively approached my bed and sat in the chair he was previously sitting in. He didn't say anything to me and wouldn't look at me for anything. I continued to force feed myself the gross banana flavored yogurt until the light headedness went away.

"Don't blame yourself, Vincent. Seriously it wasn't your fault." I said quietly. I looked at him and he shot a quick glance at me. "If you think about it, Chaos didn't throw me until that man shot. Had that man not shot at Chaos, he wouldn't have gotten mad and threw me, so it wasn't your fault."

"Hm."

I noticed something completely amazing. It was broad daylight and Vincent Valentine was out of his apartment and _awake_ nonetheless! I smiled.

"Wow Vincent, didn't know it was gonna take me nearly being in a body cast to get you out of the house in broad daylight." I laughed softly afterwards. Very softly so it didn't hurt my rib cage. Vincent shot me a look of disbelief.

"Yeah…I can still joke at a time like this. I'm fine, really. Don't be upset." I smiled at him again. Sadness didn't suit those expressionless crimson orbs.

"If you don't move out, I will." He said suddenly. The sadness in his eyes quickly changed to seriousness. His long bangs slipped out from behind his ear and hung in front of his face. He still wore that bandana.

"But…"

"No, Amaya… it's not safe to be around me. I…" he looked away from me at the wall across from us. "I care about you…that's why. It is not that I don't…want you around." It looked as if he was literally forcing those words out of his mouth. I didn't realize it was so hard to tell someone you cared about them.

"I don't want you to move. Don't you remember when I told you I need someone to cling on to? Vincent I need you. You're my friend. I don't care if it kills me being around you, I don't! That's just a risk I'll have to take."

Vincent sighed loudly and surprisingly reached down and took my right hand in his. "What's so great about me that…would make you say that?"

I smiled. "I haven't quite figured it out yet, but until I do you're not going anywhere." I gave his hand a squeeze. He lifted his eyes to mine and the second most impossible thing happened (next to him being out in broad daylight) _both_ corners of Vincent's lips turned up into a believable smile. "Oh! Has someone checked on Yume!?"

"I'll go check on her in a little while." He said. His smile faded and his eyes moved around my slightly banged up body. I didn't need a doctor to tell me what was wrong now. I probably had a severe concussion, my left arm was broke, my right knee was bandaged up, and my left hip was hurting pretty badly. I remembered very clearly now how I flew through the back windshield of that car. My knee was probably shattered because I remember it being the first thing that hit the windshield. I shielded my face with my left arm as I flew through it so that's probably how I broke it. Everything made sense now.

∞∞∞

Three days later I was back in my apartment. It was Monday and I should have been in class. Missing class in college was never a good idea. Vincent once again ventured out in the daytime and spoke with some of my professors in an attempt to make them give me a break. Once of them actually handed over a copy of the lecture they had written down. Another surprisingly gave Vincent the quiz to give to me; they trusted that I would take the quiz at home just as I would in the class. I thanked God that everyone was being so lenient because it was coming so close to finals again and I literally can't afford to fail a class.

Vincent entered my bedroom after knocking a few times. I was lying in bed half asleep. The pain medication I was on made me so sleepy I had been sleeping almost 18 hours these past three days. He tossed my quiz on the bed and handed me a notebook and a pen. He was wearing sunglasses and a black baseball cap with a long ponytail come out of the back of it. He had on a _white_ T-shirt that actually made him look more tan. I assumed this was all to make him stand out a little less in public. The only thing that seemed odd about him was the black leather glove on his left hand, but that was better than showing off the horrible looking scars on his wrist. At least he didn't go on campus wearing that gauntlet.

"If you finish that today and I return it to them by five, it won't even have to be counted as late." He walked over to my bed and sat down on it next to me. He threw off his hat and pulled the hair tie out of his hair, letting his hair loose. "But if you don't feel up to taking it, you don't have to."

"Thanks Vincent…" I said. Just looking at that quiz hurt my head, but I tried my hardest to stay focused and do my best on it. After I finished it, Vincent obediently took it back to the college. I felt bad making him do all this running around during the day. When he returned, he went straight to my kitchen and prepared a cup of our special green tea for me. I thanked him again. "You don't have to do all this…you're making me feel bad."

"I am responsible for what happened to you. Trust me…" he climbed onto my lime green and blue bedspread and laid his head on my hot pink body pillow. "I would not wait on someone hand and foot like this for no other reason."

I smirked. Of course he wouldn't that wasn't like him. "Well you can be done for the day."

He nodded. His long black hair was spread out along my hot pink pillow. I couldn't fight back the urge to reach up and run my fingers through it. His eyes instantly snapped open and locked onto mine.

"Sorry." I said quickly bring my casted arm back down to my side. He shook his head and closed his eyes again.

"I don't mind." He murmured closing his eyes again. I reached up and tugged at his bandana. He whipped it off and threw it to the floor without opening his eyes. I smiled and ran my fingers through his long hair again. Vincent turned around so his back was facing me. I gathered all of his hair and pulled it behind him. It had gotten at least three inches longer since the last time I looked at his hair. I so desperately just wanted to take scissors and cut the inch of dead ends off of it.

"Vincent?"

He didn't respond and by the sound of his heavy breathing I assumed he was asleep. I forget that Vincent stays up all night, running around during the day must have exhausted him. I continued to stroke his soft hair until I too had fallen asleep.

**◊◊****Skevade**** just assume Vincent and Reno were born on Earth ****lol****. And for those of you who have noticed that yeah its taking a long time for Vincent and Amaya to 'hook up' or whatever, that's why I made the ****fanfic**** a Friendship/Romance genre because the story is gonna be ****a lot ****about them**** developing a strong friendship. But the romance will eventually come MAYBE (don't wanna give anything away) but I don't know. ****The story could take any random turns ****at any moment ****depending on how I feel ****lol**

**Anyways THANKS for the reviews, seein them always makes me wanna update quicker. **


	15. Confrontation

**Apartment 102**

**Confrontation**

I woke up again at around midnight. My door was wide open so my room was lit by the light in the hallway. Vincent was surprisingly still sleeping next to me. He was lying flat on his back with one arm thrown out to the side and the other over his chest. He looked so peaceful sleeping there and I really didn't want to wake him, but…I had to pee like a freaking race horse.

I shook him softy with my left hand. His arm slipped off his chest but he didn't wake. "Vincent…" I whined. God, he's such a heavy sleeper. I scooted closer to him and grabbed his face with my good hand. I laughed out loud as I pushed his lips together giving him fish lips. He then began to stir and slowly awake.

He made a few inhumane groans and forced himself in a sitting position. He frowned as he touched his lips and looked over at me.

"No, I didn't kiss you." I laughed afterwards and reached out and grabbed his lips again. As if he forgot I was hurt he snatched my wrist up, then gently put it down. I giggled. "Shouldn't be such a heavy sleeper."

"Not my fault." He turned like he was going to stand up but I reached out and grabbed a chunk of his hair. "What?"

"Help me to the bathroom, please…" I grinned up at him. He walked around the bed to my side and swooped me up bridal style. I laughed and wrapped my right arm around his neck. I gasped as he almost caused me to hit my head on the doorframe.

"I'm so sorry." He said. He walked through the bathroom door more carefully and sat me down on the edge of the bathtub. He then stood there and looked at me as if asking what I wanted him to do next.

I let a nervous laugh slip. "Uh… I think I got it from here…"

"Oh…of course." Vincent said as he quickly left the bathroom shutting the door behind him. I had to cover my mouth as I laughed to myself. What…was he going to pull down my pants for me too? I did my business quickly and called his name again once I was dressed and sitting on the edge of the bathtub again. Just a simple action as using the bathroom made all my injuries throb. Vincent opened the door and squatted down in front of me.

"Are you ok?" he asked softly. My stomach filled with butterflies as he looked up at me. His eyes literally captured my soul. I couldn't believe I had Vincent Valentine, the man that used to intimidate me so much, squatted down in front of me ready to do anything I told him to.

I nodded. I stood on my good leg and let Vincent scoop me up again. "Where do you want to go?"

"Take me to your place, I wanna play some Need for Speed." I grinned down at Vincent who was staring ahead making sure he wasn't about to run me into anything.

"Hm… Coming back for more so soon?"

"What are you talking about Valentine, the only reason I came in last last time is because you cheated."

"Is that so?" He asked as he carried me out of my apartment. He kicked the door shut with his foot and proceeded into his apartment. He indeed cheated by cutting me off on a curve therefore causing me to crash right into a cop and was busted. By the time I got back on the road half of the people had already made it to the finish line.

"Sou da yo!" I said. He smirked at me.

∞∞∞

Two days later I got a call from Trace saying he was on his way to come see me. He didn't buy the story of all this being an accident and he had already jumped on the conclusion that the same creature that had attacked him was the one that attacked me. At least he wasn't accusing Vincent of all this. Just incase Vincent happened to be in my apartment when Trace came, I had already came up with the excuse that he was just my neighbor and trying to help.

I had now learned to maneuver on crutches and had gone to class on the pass two days, it was now Thursday again and I was thankful that I would have the next three days off. While on campus I rented a wheelchair from the student accessibilities center because it would have taken me years to get around on crutches from building to building in between classes.

Vincent and I were sitting on my couch eating popcorn and watching the movie Blade which happened to be about vampires.

"Did you honestly believe I was a vampire when you moved here?" he asked out of the blue.

I laughed. "Well…that's what I was told. Though, I probably wouldn't have believed you had a demon living in you if someone had told me."

Vincent frowned and shrugged. He opened his mouth to speak again, but just then someone banged on my door. Before I could even yell that it was unlocked Trace barged in. It must have been warm outside because he wore a black tank top and white shiny, sporty shorts with a back stripe down them. He had his spikey hair gelled up and I noticed he now had blond tips. He changed his hair almost as much as Rena did.

"You ok, baby?" he asked as he plopped down on the other side of me on the couch. He didn't even acknowledge Vincent and Vincent sure as hell didn't acknowledge Trace.

I nodded. He kissed my cheek and rubbed my back. "Why is he here?" he whispered to me. Vincent pretended not to hear him.

"Trace…" I scolded him silently. That was obviously a mistake as he shot and pointed his finger at me.

"No, don't _Trace_ me! What the hell is he doing here?!" he yelled. I felt Vincent shift slightly in the seat next to me.

"He's just looking after me, that's what nice neighbors do." I said trying to keep my voice low. I didn't want to embarrass myself and lose my temper in front of Vincent.

"Well find a nice female neighbor! If you didn't choose to live next to this freak, you'd have plenty of neighbors." He yelled waving his hand in Vincent's direction. Vincent appeared to surprisingly still be calm. Trace is lucky he didn't have his handgun sitting around anywhere.

"Trace, please stop acting like a jerk." I said softly. Trace crossed his arms and stared at me he had still yet to look in Vincent's direction and Vincent hadn't looked at him. I was already scared of the moment that would happen.

"Amaya you know you'd be _livid_ if every time you came around I was sitting up in my house with my female _neighbors_." He was right, I would be pissed. But this is a whole different situation. Vincent needs someone to be his friend. I'm not just hanging out with him because he's hot and I want some male action. And I know that would be the case with Trace. I couldn't even say anything.

"Do you expect me to just be alright with that? You know what…I think you should just transfer to my school and come live with me. That would solve all our problems. It's obviously not safe here anyways. Vampire neighbors, fuckin demon monsters roamin around… no I'm not having this."

"Don't call him that…"

"That's what he is Amaya! Are you that stupid?!" Trace yelled. Vincent who I guess had had enough stood up and faced Trace.

"Do _not_ yell at her like that and don't you ever call her stupid." He said in a dangerously low voice. I would hate to be Trace right now. Vincent's crimson eyes were on fire with anger.

"Don't you tell me how to treat my girl, why don't you go find one of your own to hang out with? Oh wait yeah nobody wants a freak." Trace said taking a step towards Vincent. "Why don't you just get out and let us handle this."

Vincent glared harder and a let out a low growl that seemed to come from within him. Uh oh…

"You don't scare me." Trace smirked in his face.

"Then maybe this will…" Vincent's voice had even changed. It had sort of a demonic echo to it. Those black wings shot out of his back, ripping his clothing. He transformed into Chaos right there in my living room.

"It's you…" Trace said with disbelief. "Amaya let's go!" He moved towards me but Chaos's wing shot out blocking Trace's path.

"Don't touch her." Chaos growled. Or was that Vincent… could Chaos even talk? I expected him to have ripped through Trace by now. Was Vincent in control? "Leave now."

Trace looked at me. I nodded. "Go Trace."

"If you're going to stand by _this_, its over, you do know that." He said looking at me. Vincent slowly transformed back into his normal self, only now he was shirtless. He took a step towards me, still glaring at Trace.

"It doesn't have to be like this."

"This is how you're making it." He said walking towards me again. Vincent sat back down beside me. I was surprised he stayed with me and didn't run off to his apartment. He didn't strike me as the type that would walk right into confrontation. But then again, I'm sure some of the things Trace said pushed some of Vincent's buttons.

"If you can't handle my friendship with Vincent, then I guess it will have to be over." I said finally. Trace sighed loudly.

"You really want to be friends with this monster? After what he's obviously done to you…" Trace asked.

I nodded.

He shook his head and turned around and walked to the door. "I might call you later. I need some time to think about all this." He pointed his finger right at Vincent. "You do anything inappropriate with my girl and you'll regret it."

Vincent was still glaring at him through his long bangs, but as soon as the door shut and Trace was gone his glare faded. I sighed with relief.

"Damn…" was all I could say. Vincent sighed.

"Why didn't you tell me he was coming? I would have gladly left."

"I didn't want to be like that. What was I supposed to say 'Uh Trace is coming so why don't you leave'?" I grabbed my crutches and went into the kitchen for a glass of water. Vincent followed me in there and did the same. We sat at the kitchen table together. I could not believe Vincent broke out into Chaos in _my_ living room. It was quiet for a while before I broke the silence with a random question.

"So like, you can just transform into Chaos like whenever?"

Vincent nodded. "It's mainly when I'm angry." He didn't seem to be the slightest bit uncomfortable sitting there with no shirt on in front of me. The bandana was the only thing so far that without he seemed to be uncomfortable.

"I'm so sorry about the stuff Trace said. He's probably just jealous. It's his fault we don't get to spend time together. He's the one that just pops up here anytime and expects me to drop everything. If he'd plan out when he was coming I'd at least try to make time for him."

Vincent shrugged. "Well from now on, just warn me when he's coming around."

I laughed softly. "Will do."

∞∞∞

Three weeks later finals were over and school was officially out for the summer. I applied for a job at a clothing store in the mall and my first day of work was tomorrow. It was now around 7 P.M. and Vincent and I were in the laundry room doing our laundry together. I was still supposed to be walking on crutches or using a wheel chair, but I saw no need in that. It only caused minor pain for me to walk on my left knee, so I did so without crutches. I still had severe headaches every now and then from the concussion but other than that I was doing fine. My arm was still in its cast but it never really caused me much pain or anything. I was off the pain medication; all it ever did was make me sleep anyways.

Trace had called me and was about to spend a whole week with me. I had already forewarned Vincent of this. He didn't seem happy about having to live across from Trace for a week, but he agreed to avoid my apartment for that week.

"Vince, I think you need to go shopping." I said randomly. The room had been silent for like fifteen minutes.

"Why?"

"Because all your clothes look almost exactly alike, and there's just too much black. You need to spice it up a bit and add variety." I smiled at him upon seeing his eyebrow raise.

"I'll give you money and you buy whatever it is you wish to add to my wardrobe." He said sarcastically.

"I'm being serious."

"So am I." he walked over to the vending machine and brought us both back a Twix candy bar.

"Thanks buddy." I brought little Yume with me and she was curled up in her little bag I carried her in. Her head popped out and she barked upon hearing wrappers. You could never get away with eating anything around that dog without her wanting a piece.

"No Yume. Chocolate is no good for you, little one." I spoke to her as if she were a one year old. Vincent smirked.

"You're silly." He muttered.

"I've never heard you laugh ever before so I must not be _that_ silly." I smiled at him. He gave me a half smile in return.

"I'm just very good at containing it." He paused for a while then looked up at me very seriously. "Until I met you…I had nothing to laugh for. Maybe I've forgotten how."

I smiled at him. "Trust me, one of these days I'll make you laugh till you cry."

"I wouldn't put it past you." He said before biting into one of his Twix bars.

"Hey did you ever find out who was trying to hurt Chaos?"

Vincent shook his head no and frowned in concentration. "Has George spoken with you lately?"

"No, come to think of it, ever since that day I found you coughing up Chaos's blood, I haven't seen him."

"Neither have I." He frowned down at the table and seemed to be in deep thought for a while. "Maybe this month I'll pay my rent in person."

**a-ninny-mouse oh no! I didn't take your review as an insult. I just called myself like addin on to what you were sayin and lettin everyone know that yea this is a story more about developing a relationship.**

**and yea Gismo spam away!**

**Thanks everyone for the reviews. Greatly appreciated. **


	16. Fatal Attraction

**Apartment 102**

**Fatal Attraction**

Vincent succeeded in keeping himself hidden from Trace throughout the week he stayed with me. I don't know why I keep running back to Trace; I was really starting to understand that he wasn't worth it. He doesn't treat me like he did when we were dating in high school. Instead of being sad when he had to go back to his hometown, I was relieved and I found myself not able to wait just to rush over to Vincent's apartment and let him know Trace was finally gone.

"He's gone." I said grinning. Vincent walked straight past me and into my apartment without saying a word. I followed him and shut the door. He sat down on my couch and crossed his arms. I was surprised to see him dressed in _shorts_! He had on a black T-shirt and a pair of loose black shorts that barely made it past his knees.

I whistled at him before sitting next to him. "Vincent Valentine in shorts? Never thought I'd see the day." I giggled at him.

He grunted in response.

"What's wrong?" I pouted up at him. He looked down at me and shook his head as if to say nothing. I sighed. I wasn't buying that, but whatever. I picked up the remote and turned on the TV. We sat there for a little while just watching the TV. My mind began to wonder as I thought about all this time I had spent with Vincent. In a couple of months I will have known him for a whole year. That didn't seem possible. This year had flown by. My older brothers warned me that my first year of college would fly by, but I didn't realize it would this fast. One more year of this and I will be moving to another city into a condo with my aunt. I would be an intern for a while then finally offered a job there at their company. It was a computer company that worked with people in fixing and repairing their computers along with developing and testing new software. I began to wonder if Vincent would miss having me as a neighbor or if he'd be relieved…

I looked over at him and he glanced back down at me. I quickly looked away and I could see him look away as well. "So…" I tried to start a conversation. Things hadn't been this awkward since the first couple months of knowing him.

"It's not George." He said suddenly. Oh that's right he did say something about paying his rent in person. I assumed he spoke with him.

"Did you talk to him?"

"Yes. He is also aware of a strange character stalking the apartments at night. However he is also aware of an unknown 'creature'. By the way he looked at me I know he suspects it's me." He stretched an arm out behind me on the couch.

"What do you think he'll do if he finds out that's you?" I asked looking down at his pale legs. He had strong calf muscles, I could tell. You would think that with as much hair as he had on his head, he'd be just as hairy other places, but his legs from afar looked hairless, though up close I could see fine black hairs. Vincent shrugged, he looked completely miserable so I assumed he was probably sick. I gave him a light pat of encouragement on his shoulder.

∞∞∞

On Saturday nights I didn't get home from work until almost ten thirty at night. This was a dangerous time to be coming home at nights with Vincent possible roaming around in Chaos form. However I was lucky enough this night to get home safely without seeing him. For the past three days I have avoided Vincent solely because I felt once again that I was imposing on his solitude so he calls it.

I pulled my cell phone out of my purse and found out I had three missed called. It was ironic that it was three of the most important people in my life right now. My boyfriend Trace had called first, then my best friend Rena, and the last missed call was Vincent. I don't know how he worked his way up to being so important in my life, but he just was. If he disappeared tonight it would greatly affect me and I don't know how I'd recover. These realizations are what led me to believe that I was starting to develop feelings that were stronger than those of a friendship. However I couldn't see him actually feeling the same for me so I'm not sure if I want to let this feelings grow any stronger.

I called Rena back first, as she was the easiest of the three to talk to at this point. But of course after about five rings, her voicemail kicked in. "Hey Rena, just calling you back to see what you wanted. I don't work Tuesday so…I think we should get together or something; maybe have another girl's night or whatever. Talk to ya later, bye."

I then dialed Trace's number. Since it was him that called me first, it made it a little bit easier to call him. Otherwise, you never know when you might call him during one of his bad moods. "Yo, you've reached Trace, I'll hit you back later if you leave a message."

I sighed loudly. He wasn't even worth a voicemail at this time so I just hung up the phone. I reluctantly scrolled down to the very last name on my contacts list which was Vincent. Obviously because the name started with a V, he came last. The phone rang only twice before I heard that deep voice on the other end.

"Hello?"

"Hi…uh…you called?"

"Oh…yes I did. Let's go for a walk." It wasn't like Vincent to just suggest doing something like this. It was usually me asking him if I could follow him on one of his walks. I didn't even know if I could handle even a walk with him right now. Each second I spend with him, the feelings involuntarily grow stronger.

"Amaya?"

"Oh! Sorry…I'm trying to do two things at once…" I lied followed by a nervous laugh. "Yeah sure, just give me five minutes I need to change clothes."

"Ok." He hung up and two minutes later he walked through my unlocked door. Yume's barking could be heard from her cage in the kitchen. Trace took up with Yume very well while he was here and even bought her a huge cage and a hot pink pillow that nearly filled the entire floor of the cage. Vincent didn't say anything to me as he walked through my living room and into the kitchen. I heard him let Yume out and put a leash on her.

"Are you going to change?" He asked leading Yume to the door. She wagged her tail excitedly ready to go on her adventure. I was still sitting on the couch contemplating whether I could handle going on a walk with him or not. I guess I had no choice. I drug myself off the couch and went to my room to change into a pair of black sweatpants capris, and a pink and black tight fitted T-shirt. I pulled my hair down from the messy bun it was in and brushed it out neatly. It had grown quite a bit since I first moved here. It now reached about six inches past my shoulders. It was still slightly thin and board straight.

Vincent was wearing his cloak although it was nowhere near cold outside. We left my apartment and walked down the hallway. Vincent had to carry Yume down the stairs because the poor dog's legs were too short to handle them.

"You're awfully quiet." He said suddenly once we had made it outside on the sidewalk. I sighed softly.

"There's just a lot on my mind right now."

"Hm." He responded. I've noticed that if he doesn't know what to say in a situation. 'Hm' seems to work for him.

I shivered slightly, although it was warm outside, every now and then a cool breeze would whip by. Little Yume switched back and forth from the right side of the sidewalk to the left side sniffing everything she saw.

"Is there something wrong?" He asked slowing his pace a little as we passed by the bench we usually sat on.

I shook my head no. "Not necessarily…" I wish he would just get to the point of why he wanted to take this walk. It's not like Vincent to just pointlessly want to walk somewhere. And why wasn't he worried about Chaos tonight?

He kept walking until we made it all the way to the park that he took me to watch the snow. He tied Yume's leash onto one of the stakes in the ground that was there for playing horse shoes. He then took a seat on the wooden bench close by. I followed and sat next to him. We watched Yume sniff around at everything for a little while without saying a word. I then thought of a subject that wasn't too risky to touch on.

"So…any updates on who attacked Chaos?"

He sighed and shook his head no. He dipped his head a little sending his mouth further down into the collar of his cloak. His crimson eyes were focused on a random spot on the ground near us.

I shivered again as another cool breeze blew. Vincent sighed as he scooted closer to me and wrapped his arm around my shoulders. He wore that metal gauntlet today and I occasionally heard the metal of the fingers clicking as he randomly moved his fingers. We sat this way in silence for another good fifteen minutes.

"Vin.."

"Ama.."

We both started to speak at the same time. Vincent instantly went silent and refused to continue until I had said what I needed to.

"Do you take our friendship seriously?" I asked. This among other things was a question that had been left unanswered for a long time. Part of me always thought that he just tolerated me because I was such a nice person, but that deep down he did not care if we were friends or not.

Vincent placed his hand covered by that gauntlet on my shoulder and stroked it lightly with those metal digits. "I'm not too fond of attachments…but yes…I consider you a friend of mine and I take that bond seriously. But…in order to avoid bringing more agony upon myself I need to remain distant in a sense. However…you are making that hard for me."

I smiled slightly. "How so?" It felt so good being this close to him. I looked up at his dark form. His black hair was sweeping gently in the wind. Every now and then pieces of it would tease my neck and face.

Vincent turned to me and studied my face with his blood red orbs. "You've proven to me that good people do still exist in this world." His voice was slightly muffled coming from behind the collar of his cloak.

My smile widened. "I told ya not everyone was…what did you say…'troublesome and dishonest'?" I tried my best to imitate his deep voice. This resulting in a slight chuckle from the dark, impassive man next to me. "Ah ha! A laugh!"

Vincent cleared his throat and shot me a look that I took to mean 'come on be serious'. So I did. He looked out at Yume who was curled up in the grass taking a nap.

"Did you choose to befriend me because you pity me?" I was shocked by this question and thought hard before answering it.

"To be honest at first I was like 'Oh poor guy, he just needs a friend' and I did do it out of pity." I paused trying to think of how I wanted to put the rest of my sentence together.

"…and now?" Vincent rushed my response. And now Vincent I'm practically in love with you. There was no way I could tell him this.

"Now I've come to realize what a totally awesome dude you are." I laughed then smiled up at him. I couldn't tell if he was smiling behind that cloak, so I boldly reach up and pulled his collar down so I could see his mouth. He was indeed showing a small smile. I shivered again and climbed right into his lap, picking up the fabric of his cloak and putting it over my legs. I was sure Vincent was going to push me off of him and let me hit the cold ground, but instead he wrapped both of his arms around my waist and pulled me back against him.

"Vincent?"

"Mmm hm?" I was instantly aware of how close his face was to mine. In fact, he was now resting his chin upon my shoulder.

"You smell good." I laughed nervously trying to ease the tension of the situation. Although Vincent seemed completely comfortable and content. He snorted softly in response to that comment. I rested my arms over his and ran my fingers over his metal gauntlet. It felt so good being this close to him. He felt so warm.

"Don't fall asleep out here because I'm not going to carry you home." He said after minutes of silence passed by. I let out a fake snore followed by loud laughter. I didn't realize how loud I was being until I heard my echo in the distance.

"You wouldn't carry me home?" I asked with a mock pout on my face. I felt his warm breath on my cheek and neck as he let out a soft sigh.

"No…I'd let you sleep out here on the bench. I'd take the dog back though." He said. I could hear a hint of sarcasm in his voice. I turned my head to face him and was shocked by the closeness this brought our faces. My lips were centimeters away from the buckles on the collar of his cloak.

"You'd carry me. I know you would." I whispered to him. He nodded while studying me with those amazing eyes of his. I felt one of his arms release my waist and before I knew it he had pulled down his collar and pressed his lips against mine. A second later both of us took in one sharp breath and backed away from each other.

Vincent shot off the bench and walked towards Yume. He untied her leash from the stake and started walking. I hopped off the bench and followed.

"Vin…"

"No." he said simply while picking up the pace. Hey! He was the one that kissed _me_!

"But you…"

Vincent spun around so quickly it caused him to jerk Yume's leash. She let out a yelp in response. "Make sure you let Trace know of this, I want to see him make me regret it." With that he turned back around and stormed back to the apartments not even taking the time to look back and make sure I was keeping up. Why was he mad at me?! I didn't do anything! Tears collected in the corners of my eyes but I refused to let any drop. Once we reached our hallway I entered my apartment and slammed the door. I then heard scratching at my door and a dog whining.

I opened my door and saw that Vincent had tied her leash to my doorknob before going into his apartment. What a jerk! Now I was officially pissed off at him. I knew becoming this attracted to him was going to be a bad idea.


	17. The Culprit

**Apartment 102**

**The Culprit**

The next morning when I woke up I had to question if last night had been a dream. Was I honestly kissed by Vincent Valentine then totally ditched? I remember the utter shock that was written all over his pale face when our kiss broke. Kiss… it was more like brushing our lips past one another's. It honestly only lasted maybe a half a second.

When I actually gained the nerve to get out of bed, I reached for my phone and called Rena. It was Sunday today and I had slept til noon.

"Hello?"

"Hey Rena, you won't believe what happened last night." I knew Vincent wouldn't be happy about me spreading it around, but damn he shouldn't have done it. I'm mad at him anyways for getting mad over a kiss. A kiss that _he _did!!

"Oh my God what!?"

"Vincent kissed me." I walked down the hall and into the kitchen. I let Yume out and she instantly began running around crazily her nails causing her to slip around on the kitchen floor.

Rena gasped dramatically. "Lucky!"

"No! But then guess what he did." I didn't even give her two seconds to guess. "He jumps off the bench and takes off with my dog. I tried to say something to him but he was like 'no'. Then he kept walking and I tried to talk again and he spun around with that nasty glare on his face and was like 'Make sure you tell Trace because I wanna see him make me regret it' or somethin like that. I mean damn…what the hell was that?"

"Dude, I don't know… Are you sure _he_ instigated the kiss because maybe if it was you, he might feel as if you crossed the line…"

I quickly cut her off. "I'm positive it was him! He even had his cloak thing on that comes up past his lips and he _pulled it down_ to kiss me." I slammed the refrigerator door shut after I grabbed a carton of eggs. I began to prepare breakfast for myself even though I really didn't feel like eating anything. I talked to Rena for almost an hour about guys. She was having Reno problems as well, but I'm sure we could all see that coming. After I hung up with her I lounged around on the couch watching TV. I really wanted to play a video game, but I wasn't about to face Vincent.

A week later and it was Sunday again. I sat in the same position I was in last Sunday, lounging on the couch watching TV. Without Vincent all my nights were free. Most of those nights I went over to Lunaz's place to hang out over there. She was now talking to a nice guy named Cloud. Surprisingly Cloud told us he had heard of Vincent Valentine before. He claimed that a long time ago his uncle had stayed nearby once and had to move away out of fear for his life. His uncle used to tell him a story of a winged creature haunting those apartments when Cloud was just a young boy.

My whole body froze when I heard the ringtone that I had set as Vincent's. I snatched my phone up only to realize it was just a text. Well anything from him was good at this point.

_Come outside. _It read.

I quickly rushed to the bathroom and pulled my hair back in a messy bun. Today it was miserably frizzy from the humidity in the air. Earlier I had taken my trash out to the dumpster, those few seconds I was outside was enough to frizz out my hair. I was still wearing my light pink pajama capris and a grey tank top. I walked out into the hallway bare footed.

Vincent was sitting on the couch with his arms crossed and his head down. Though he did ask me to come out here, when I approached him he didn't bother to greet me or even acknowledge my presence.

"What did you want? I don't have all night." I turned away from him and looked out the window. The moon seemed really big and put off a more yellow glow tonight.

"I'm sorry." I heard him say in a voice so low it might as well of been a whisper. I turned to him to catch a troubled expression on his face.

"I…don't be sorry." My anger towards him instantly faded away and I was now ready to just forget all that had even happened. "Forget about it, ok? I'm not mad at you, this whole time I've been thinking you were mad at me and I just couldn't figure out what for."

Vincent looked down at the coffee table across from us. "I was not mad at you, I was disgusted with myself. My actions and thoughts were unacceptable, and I apologize for that indecency." I wanted to roll my eyes and laugh in his face for talking like that to me. Come on it's _me_, Amaya. Wait did he say his thoughts? Did he just admit to having dirty thoughts about me?! Vincent looked up at me and I quickly shook away all of my own thoughts.

"Apology accepted. Even though I don't really know why you're apologizing for what you did. It wasn't a big deal and I'm probably not going to tell Trace." I showed him a small smile once he finally looked at me.

"Is it possible for us to remain friends?" he asked. The sad tone of his voice nearly broke my heart. His eyes were now hidden by all that black hair. It was as if he was ashamed to even look at me.

I smirked. "Only on one condition."

He looked up at me with a bit of confusion in his face. I quickly pressed my lips against his cheek and hopped off of the couch. "Now we're even!" Vincent's lips were parted and his eyes were wide with shock. I grinned at him and quickly went inside my apartment. He took him a moment, but he composed himself and followed.

∞∞∞

Today was Monday and of course I came home loaded down with books. I walked up the sidewalk to the apartment buildings and noticed a strange guy standing around. He was dressed in all black and looked as if he had a gun in his hand. When he caught me staring at him he quickly hid behind a bush. I laughed inwardly did he think I was that stupid. I sat my books down on the ground and walked over to the bush he was hiding in.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"None of your business." He said, he then got a better look at me and his whole attitude changed. "Oh…you're the girl."

"The girl?" I put my hand on my hip and looked at him with attitude.

"Vincent Valentine speaks to you." He took a few steps closer to me. "You're Amaya Arai, Trace's girlfriend. You don't remember me?"

He stepped out into the moonlight so I was able to see his face. I gasped it was Trace's best friend Kenji. Kenji stood at an average height, had shoulder length black hair. He was also an Asian with intensely slanted eyes more so than the average. He had piercings all over his face including one in his lip, one hanging from the nostrils of his nose, and one on his left eyebrow.

"What are you doing here?"

"Trace told me about some monster that attacked him. I've always thought that supernatural shit was pretty cool… never actually thought anything like Mr. Valentine was real, you know. Then as I was hangin around down here the manager caught me. I thought he was gonna kick me off the premises, but he saw that I was watching that man. He told me all about him and said that if I was able to take him down, he'd pay me a large sum. On top of that Trace was talkin to me and he was real pissed about him hanging out with you and said _he'd_ pay me if I exposed him." I narrowed my eyes as I thought a little while after hearing Kenji's story.

"So…uh…why you hangin with a guy like that? I saw him attack you that day. I tried to save you, by shooting him…but…then he threw you. After he calmed down a bit and transformed back into his human self he wouldn't even let me touch you. He pulled out a gun and told me I'd better leave so I did. You look like you're all right now, what does he have magical healing powers too?"

I sighed and we both began to walk towards the door of the apartment buildings that lead the hallway where the stairs were. "No…I guess he ran me to the hospital. He stayed with me the whole time…took good care of me. He's a really nice guy; he doesn't want to hurt anyone. He doesn't have control of the monster inside him." We stopped once inside the building. We stood by the stairs in the dark hallway.

"Yeah…and that's great and all, but he's dangerous Amaya. We both could have died that night. Trace could have been killed that night before. The manager said there's been over twenty deaths in this area since he moved here. They've all been kept on the hush hush though because you know if people hear about a bunch of deaths they aint gonna wanna rent an apartment out here and therefore his business goes down the drain."

Over twenty deaths…that fact shocked me. Kenji seemed to notice as he continued. "Yeah…so you might wanna think twice about this whole living across from a monster thing. Yeah I'm sure it's lonely for him, but it's safe that way. I could put an end to his loneliness and make this place safer, if you know what I mean."

"You can't." I said quietly as I stared down at the floor. "He's immortal, he can't die. You're only causing him more pain and angering the monster within him, ok? So just stop. You have no idea what that man's been through." I glared up at Kenji to let him know I meant business. He smirked at me.

"I'm sure there's a way to kill him. Hey, honestly I'm just trying to do the guy a favor because sooner or later the manager is going to call the police and have him investigated. They'll probably lock him up in some science lab somewhere and torture him to death." He let a laugh slip and I quickly slapped him across the face.

"It's not funny!" I yelled. Kenji stopped laughing and glared at me.

"Oh it's hilarious." He turned his back to me and walked out of the building. I sighed loudly as I made my way up the stairs. A few minutes later Kenji came back in carrying my books that I had left on the sidewalk. "Obviously you're not even thinking clearly anymore, Amaya." He pushed the books at me roughly and I took them nearly dropping the one on top. It was getting harder for me to think about the simple things around me. I had bigger things on my mind right now.

I came around the corner to face a not so happy looking Vincent standing in the middle of the hall with his arms crossed. "We need to talk."

"Uh…in a minute, Vincent." I said walking towards my door. I entered my apartment with Vincent not too far behind. After I dumped by books off on the couch I turned to him to see what he wanted.

"Who was that man?" he demanded, his voice sounded rather harsh.

"Kenji. He's Trace's best friend. He's being paid to kill you. I told him you can't die. He says he will find a way. He also said that soon George will be trying to turn you in."

Vincent's eyebrows lowered. He stormed out of my apartment carrying his gun out in the open. I ran to the door and saw him walking down the hallway towards the stairs. He looked as if he were ready to kill.

∞∞∞

The next day went I came home I noticed three cop cars parked in the parking lot. One of them was in my parking _spot_. I cursed under my breath and parked right next to it. I left my books in my car and hurried into the building wonder if this had something to do with Vincent. As soon as I turned the corner into the hallway I realized it did. Vincent was sitting on the couch across from two police officers on the other couch.

"I assure you officer that has nothing to do with me." Vincent said rather politely. It didn't even sound like him. All three of their heads turned towards me as I walked to my door.

"Excuse me, miss. I assume you are aware of the murder here last night of George Crites. May we ask you a few questions?" The officer asked. One of the officers was a skinny black man; the other was a fat white man. I looked at Vincent and he looked back at me. For the first time I could read him from the expression on his face. I knew right away he did indeed shoot George last night. I never thought Vincent would do something like that…but he did say he was a Turk in his earlier years.

"Sure…" I sat down next to Vincent. Just the whiff of his scent calmed my nerves.

"Where were you last night around eleven o'clock during the murder?" The heavier officer asked. He seemed really nonchalant about the situation.

"I was in my apartment getting ready for bed."

He nodded. "Did you happen to hear any gunshots?"

"No, sir." I honestly hadn't. Vincent to my surprise leaned towards me and placed his hand gently on my knee.

"Are you two involved? Can you confirm that Mr. Valentine was in his apartment at this time as well?" The thinner black man asked. He actually seemed to care a little bit.

"Vincent spent the night with me last night." I placed my hand over his on my knee. I looked up at him and he smiled.

The officers asked a few more simple questions and were on their way. There were other groups of cops asking different people different questions. Once they left Vincent quickly took his hand off of me and scooted away a few inches.

"Vincent why…"

"I had to. He knew too much." Vincent said simply. He frowned deeply before standing. "Kenji was it? He's next. Warn Trace as well." I was so damn happy to be this man's friend. You sure as hell don't want to be an enemy of Vincent Valentine. Wait a minute warn Trace?! He wouldn't kill Trace too would he?!


	18. Us Against the World

**Apartment 102**

**Us ****Against**** the World**

Two weeks had passed by and I had only seen Vincent for a brief ten minutes. He came by my apartment just to ask had I seen Kenji around. I hadn't. In fact, the apartments seemed very quiet and I really hadn't seen anyone hanging around. This was probably because in everyone else's eyes it would seem like there was a murderer running free in this area.

My mom had even driven into town to make sure everything was ok. Right now she was in my kitchen rearranging stuff in my cabinets because I just threw all that stuff in there any old way. Also occasionally back when times were calmer Vincent would come over and rummage my cabinets for sweets.

I was relaxing on my bed playing a simple game of solitaire on my lap top. Today was Thursday again and I really didn't have anything to do since I didn't work that day. Suddenly I heard a knock at my door and before I could even get up and run down the hall, my mother had already answered it.

She and Vincent stared at each other for quite a while before either of them spoke. "Hello Ma'am is Amaya here?" I stood out of their view in the hallway. I smirked to myself at how formal Vincent sounded. Not that he was a rude person or anything.

"Hai…" My mother said. I swear sometimes she doesn't even realize she's living in the United States. "Ama-chan!" she called. I walked slowly down the rest of the hallway then sped up once I was at the end so it didn't look obvious that I was standing right there.

"Vincent!" I exclaimed sounding surprised. He nodded at me then looked back at my mom.

"I'll leave if you're busy…" he sounded sort of disappointed. He was dressed very nicely in a buttoned down _white_ shirt tucked into black dress pants. The black glove on his left hand reached all the way up to his elbow and he wore a black wristband on his right arm. His long hair was pulled back neatly; his black bandana was placed in its normal position. He smelled very good, I made a note to ask him what cologne he wears later after I got rid of my mother.

"Oh no! We're not busy, are we? Uh….Ma…this is my friend Vincent Valentine. Vincent this is my mother Manami Arai."

Vincent took a step forward and extended his ungloved hand to my mom. My mother only stood about 4'11 so Vincent towered over her much more so than he did me. She took his hand and he gave her a firm hand shake. "Nice to meet you." He said.

"I've heard of you. You are the one responsible for Amaya's accident. Trace has spoken much about you." My mom crossed her arms and looked up at Vincent. She had to crane her neck quite a bit to meet eyes with him. Damn Trace. I should have known he was going to run to my mom to whine and cry. So immature! I swear this is it I am done this time! Vincent can kill him for all I care now!

"Forgive me, it indeed was an accident. I will do all I can to prevent it from happening again. I care a lot for your daughter and her friendship means a lot to someone like me." He stared down at my mother for a while then looked over at me. I smiled and couldn't resist running over to hug him. He hugged me briefly then quickly released me.

"Chotto! Someone like you?" Mom asked.

"Okaasan…" I gently touched her shoulder in hopes of calming her down. Vincent didn't need anybody else coming down on him like this.

Vincent bowed his head in shame.

"Trace said to me everything… You put both of their lives in danger. My daughter could have great future with Trace! I will not allow you to ruin that for her!" My mom continued. I looked down at the grey carpet afraid to look at either one of them.

Suddenly Vincent lifted his head his eyes had that fire in them that let me know he was angry. "Neither you nor Trace have any idea what I've been through! You have no idea how hard life is for me! All your daughter is trying to do is help me… I have no one! Nothing!" That was the first time I had ever heard Vincent raise his voice like that. I watched him take a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

"Well that is not our problem." My mother said softly. She turned away and went to grab her purse.

"Okaasan, I don't love Trace anymore. It's over between us. He's not the person you think he is. He's not the same kid I grew up with in school. I've hung onto him for this long because I was scared to let him go, but now it's time to. None of that has anything to do with Vincent so don't blame him. And he's right! You don't know anything about him! So don't judge him!" My voice cracked and tears instantly poured down my cheeks. Vincent was at my side in a second consoling me.

"Now he's turning you against your own mother. I cannot watch this…" she put up her hands and walked towards the door. "You better start thinking smarter." She slammed the door shut and was gone. I wrapped my arms around Vincent and cried into his white shirt.

"Look at what I've done, Amaya…" He whispered into my hair. He reluctantly placed his hands on my back and stroked it lightly.

"It's not you… If they could just understand…" I pulled away from him and wiped my eyes. I wasn't really surprised at my mom's reaction. She had always been the judgmental type. I'm sure Trace put a shit load of exaggerations in her ear about Vincent. I wanted to whip out my cell phone right now and just scream at him for even getting her involved. This was definitely the end for me and Trace.

∞∞∞

The next day I went over to Lunaz's to chill out in her hot tub with her and Rena. The sun was setting so the sky looked really beautiful. I kept zoning out and thinking of Vincent. I could no longer deny that I had fallen for him and fallen hard. If anything were to happen to him because of Kenji or Trace, I might have to be the one doing the killing.

"Yo! Earth to Maya!" Rena waved her hand in front of my face. Lunaz giggled.

"Sorry guys… There's just so much on my mind right now." I looked down into the bubbling water. The pressure from the shooting water felt amazing against my back.

"Spill." They both said in unison.

"I'm breaking up with Trace and I'm in love with my neighbor Vincent." I said very quickly. They both gasped. There was then a long silence and I swear neither one of them blinked.

Rena finally snapped out of it. "But he can't age right? And Amaya he's dangerous."

"No…he can't… and yeah I know, but I'm not even concerned about that right now." I sighed loudly and really just wanted to disappear under the water. Rena scooted closer to my right and Lunaz scooted close to my left side.

"I'm sure no matter what, everything will turn out right." Rena said giving me a light pat on my shoulder. "So have you told him yet?"

"No…I'm still scared of how he will react. I mean he couldn't even speak to me for a week after he kissed me. If I tell him I love him he probably won't speak to me for a whole year! Time doesn't mean anything to him."

"Hmm… want me to have a chat with him? Or Reno? I can make him do it." She grinned at me. I rolled my eyes dramatically there was no way I was gonna let her or Reno try to tell him. That would probably just piss him off. I tried to lighten up a bit for my friends for the rest of the night. Everything in their lives seemed to be going just perfect.

Even though it was now the beginning of June it had still gotten kind of chilly that night so I tried to hurry into the apartment building because my clothes and hair were wet. I hurried to my door and fumbled with my keys like always. Suddenly my door opened and I stood face to face with Vincent. He drug me into my apartment and shut and locked the door.

"They are going to be investigating my apartment soon." He said softly. That would explain the boxes of his things sitting around my living room and the gun lying carelessly on my coffee table.

"Uh…well…move your stuff into my closet or something; you can't just have it all out here in the open what if they want to check mine too?" We both grabbed a box and carried it into my bedroom. There were only three small boxes. It seemed like it was all just papers. Then it hit me they were probably research papers from the experiment that was performed on him. That would make perfect sense as to why that couldn't be in his apartment while it was being investigated. After we had all of his stuff including that gun hidden away we sat down on the couch together. The silence was almost deafening, but I couldn't think of anything to say. I wasn't ready to confess just yet, and right now probably wasn't the time. Out of the corner of my eye, Vincent appeared to be brooding over something.

"Are you hungry or something?" I asked finally. I was starving and my stomach had already growled plenty of times.

He shook his head no. "What time is it? I will run and get you something if you want me to." I didn't want to make Vincent go anywhere so I settled on some ramen noodles. I sat next to Vincent on the couch while watching TV and eating my noodles. He wouldn't say a word to me. I wondered if he was really taking what Trace and my mom had said to heart. Next thing he'll know my brothers will be down here trying to give him a hard time.

"Vincent talk to me" I said nudging him with my elbow playfully. He sighed and placed his arm behind me on the back of the couch.

"Now do you regret hanging around me?" he asked looking over at me then down at my food. I thought I heard his stomach make a small noise. I handed him my chopsticks and held the bowl out to him. He took bowl away from me and began eating. I only meant to give him a little bit not the whole thing.

"No…never. But it does discourage me a little bit that you eat _all_ my food!" I said reaching for my bowl. Vincent gave it back to me along with the chopsticks.

"I'm being serious. It really doesn't bother you that I've turned your boyfriend and now your mother against you? A while back I recall you having problems with your best friend because of me. Does none of this truly matter to you?" he asked. I sat down my nearly empty bowl of noodles on my coffee table and turned to him. It was either now or never and I knew I had to get it out whether I was ready or not.

"Vincent…I…" I swallowed hard and was ready to force those words out of my mouth. "I…" My cell phone started ringing just then and I could tell it was Trace by the ringtone. For some reason I was almost relieved.

"Hello?"

"Yeah…babe…"

"No don't babe me! Trace we are over! Why would you go and get my mom involved in this!?" I stood up and started pacing the room as I continued to yell at Trace about what dumb little immature brat he was.

"Amaya stop! I only did it because I'm concerned about you. I can't believe you are going to throw all of what we had away for that monster!" he yelled. I paused for a moment. Memories of Trace and I flashed through my mind, but I didn't let that stop me this time

"Believe it Trace." I hung up on him and turned my cell phone off. I had fully lost the nerve to confess my feelings for Vincent by now so I went to my room and gathered some pajamas so I could shower and get ready for bed.

The next morning I woke up at around nine o'clock. I had to go to my part-time job at the clothing store at noon until about five. My first stop was the bathroom to make sure I looked presentable. I felt bad for not making sure Vincent was comfortable before I went to sleep, but I was sure he would make sure of that himself. That is if he even stuck around the apartment. I pulled my hair back into a low messy bun, and left a few strings of my bangs over my forehead. I peeked into the living room and witnessed the cutest thing I had ever seen. Vincent was curled up on my couch with Yume sleeping in the crook of his bent arm. He had his hair tied back, and his bandana was sitting on my coffee table so I could see all of his handsome face. He was frowning slightly and his eyebrows were furrowed. Yume seemed entirely content. She snuggled her cute little nose into his arm. I heard him let out a deep sigh and he shifted slightly, not awaking. I left the two alone and began fixing breakfast.

I brought out my waffle maker and made two delicious waffles for Vincent and I, by the time I had the eggs and bacon done, I heard the jingle of the bell on Yume's collar and the clicking of her nails on the floor. Not too far behind was the sound of Vincent dragging his feet into my kitchen.

"Good morning! I must say you and Yume looked adorable sleeping together on the couch. Sorry I didn't make sure you were comfortable last night. I didn't expect you to sleep here."

"Oh…no…I'm sorry for just inviting myself over here. Is it ok if I stay until the investigations are over? I won't be letting Chaos out anytime soon." He said as he took a seat at my tiny kitchen table. I smiled and nodded at him. I sat his plate in front of him and took a spot across from him.

"I have to go to work at noon." I informed him. He merely nodded at this. I laughed as he dropped a piece of bacon for Yume. She ate it in less than .2 seconds. His eyes widened.

"Have you been feeding this dog?"

I laughed even harder. "Yeah! I don't know why she's eating like she hasn't seen food for years."

Vincent chuckled softly. My grin widened. I loved the sound of his soft laughter. A very small smile appeared on his lips as he stared back at me. There was definitely no doubt that I was in love with him. I didn't care who tried to stand in our way now. Even though it was starting to look like it was us against the world, I was not leaving Vincent's side not now not _ever._

"What was it you were trying to say last night?" he asked suddenly. My stomach dropped and I felt like all of the waffle I had just eaten was about to come back up on the table.


	19. Holding Back

**Apartment 102**

**Holding Back**

I swallowed hard. The room was completely silence. Even Yume stopped her little pleas for food. I felt Vincent's stare burning into my face but I could not look at him.

"I wanted to say…uh…that…I just really value our friendship. I don't care about anything else right now." God, what a coward! Did I really just back out like that? I closed my eyes and stroked my forehead still unable to look at Vincent.

"I see." Vincent said in his usual monotone. I couldn't tell if he actually bought that or not. It sounded convincing enough to me. After we finished our breakfast and argued over who was doing the dishes, it was time for me to start getting ready for work. This time of day it usually took about thirty minutes to get to the mall from my apartment. I dug through my closet trying to find something decent to wear. I could hear the TV being turned on in the living room. I didn't even want to have to walk in there and face Vincent again. He's got my heart beating a million times per second, my hands had a slight tremor, and my legs felt like jelly. Yeah…this was definitely love or just a massive crush. Either way confessing this to Vincent could lead to the end of our friendship. But holding these feelings inside is going to kill me.

I finally found the right outfit which consisted of dressy black capris and a white shirt with black designs on it. I pulled my hair up into a messy, but stylish bun. I put on some silver bracelets and some jewelry. The other girls that worked in this store had always dressed up nicely so I thought if I wanted to keep working there I'd better do the same. I picked up my black purse and my car keys and headed into the living room.

"Bye." I said quietly. I was facing the door not even daring to look at the man behind me.

"What time will you return?" he asked. What did it matter to him? Since when did he feel the need to keep track of me? The Vincent I knew personally didn't care where I was going or when I was coming back. The only concern he'd ever shown for me was my physical well being. As long as I wasn't hurt, he wasn't concerned.

"About 4:30." I answered. I wanted to ask him if he'd still be here, but I couldn't. I couldn't even bring myself to turn around and look at him. I heard him sigh softly.

"Ok. You do not mind if I stay?" My stomach flipped. So he was staying…

"Of course I don't." I turned and saw that Vincent hadn't been looking at me either. His eyes were glued on the TV. There was some kind of action movie playing. People shooting, yelling, things exploding, etc…

He didn't seem to have any more to say so I left. God when did things get so awkward!? Just when all those awkward moments seemed to have been gone for good, they come flooding back worse than ever.

∞∞∞

I walked so slowly down the hall afraid to walk into my own apartment because _he_ was in there and pretty soon I'm gonna have to tell _him_ just how I feel. I let myself in the apartment to find Vincent fast asleep on my couch again. The TV was on mute and all the lights were off. The only sound in the whole apartment was Vincent's steady breathing and occasional soft snore. I knew he was a heavy sleeper so I didn't have to try to be quiet as I walked through the house carrying on with my daily chores. I leaned up against a counter in the kitchen alone eating a sandwich that I had made. Yume's high pitch screechy barks evidently were enough to bring the sleeping man out of his deep sleep and into the kitchen.

"That's an interesting outfit for work." He said taking a look at my outfit. I was relieved that he wasn't feeling the awkwardness. He walked right over to me and reached above me into the cabinet that held all my sweet junk food. He grabbed a package of swiss rolls and leaned against the counter just a few inches from me and began eating them.

"You'll be needing to restock soon." He looked over at me obviously unaware of what those crimson eyes were doing to me. I sent a quick glance at him then looked to the floor and nodded. "What's wrong with you?" he asked rather bluntly. That wasn't like him either. He was one who didn't like to be asked questions like that so he was never one to ask them himself. I didn't hide my uneasiness very well at all so I should have expected him to suspect something was up. He continued staring at me. I watched the rim in my eyes rise until a single tear fell and splattered on the white tile floor. Another one wasn't far behind.

"Amaya…" Vincent said softly as he touched my shoulder.

"Don't…" I said shrugging his hand off my shoulder. If he touches me again I'll push him down onto the kitchen table and kiss him like I know he's never been kissed before. Then I can imagine him storming out of my house and never speaking to me again.

"If you believe in our friendship so much…why is it you can't tell me what it is that's bothering you." He was now looking at the floor as well. This took a little bit of the weight off my shoulders. I quickly wiped my tears away.

"Vincent…promise me that when I tell you this you won't run away." I sniffed and looked up at his face. Even though his head was bowed as he was looking at the floor, from my height I could still see his face.

He nodded. "I promise."

"I…" I swallowed hard as I felt that sandwich coming up. "Vincent…I…" Why won't those words come out!? I fanned myself as if to prevent more tears from falling. "…love you." I whispered. The whole world seemed to come to a pause. For a while I honestly felt like time had stopped. Just five tics of the clock seemed like an eternity. Vincent finally turned and looked at me.

"Don't say that." His harsh tone was enough to bring more tears from my eyes. Vincent frowned harder as he watched me cry. Once I composed myself I took a step towards him bringing our bodies a few inches from each other and looked right into his eyes.

"I love you." I said again. Vincent appeared to be frozen for about five minutes, he then turned sharply and stormed out of the kitchen.

"You promised you wouldn't run away!" I yelled after him. He paused in the doorway from the kitchen to the living room. His hands were gripping the doorframe on both sides. I watched as his grip tightened before he let go and walked into the living room. I followed him. "Vincent!" I yelled as if I was scolding him like a child. I watched him put his hand on the doorknob. Despite me repeating his name, he opened the door and was gone.

After crying for nearly ten minutes I then realized how angry, frustrated and completely disgusted I was now. I snatched up the phone so I could vent to my best friend Rena.

"Hello?"

"Yeah I told him." I said. She should have already been able to tell that things didn't go well by the tone of my voice.

"Uh oh…what happened?" she asked.

"He just stormed out of the apartment. He shouldn't even be hanging around outside or in his own apartment because people are coming to investigate it." I threw myself down on the couch and instantly regretted it. He had the whole thing smelling like him.

"Go chase him down! Now or I'll come over there and do it." She hung up. I sighed loudly. I had better find him before she did. Rena has always had that attitude of 'nobody messes with my best friend' so I'm sure she'd give him an ear full. I ran out of my apartment and outside of the building. I didn't get far when I heard someone say my name. I spun around to see Kenji standing there holding Vincent's headband in his right hand.

"Looking for Vincent?" he asked cackling. I saw water dripping from the headband. It wasn't raining and the only place I knew out here where there was water was the pool. I pushed passed Kenji and ran down the sidewalk and to the swimming pool. As soon as I reached the gate I saw blood in the water. I climbed over the gate and dove into the pool. I grabbed Vincent's body that had sunk to the bottom and pulled him up to the surface. There was still fresh blood flowing freely from his head. I sat him on the stairs of the pool.

"Vincent." I whispered shaking him. He didn't respond and nothing I did could get a response out of him. I pulled him up on the concrete beside the pool and laid him flat on his back. I was no CPR expert so I had no idea what I was doing as I blew into his mouth and pumped his chest. After fifteen minutes of this seemingly useless method Vincent began coughing and tons of water came pouring out of his mouth. He gasped for air a couple of times then began breathing regularly. "Vincent…what happened?"

He shook his head as if saying nothing. He sat up and turned away from me. We both heard a gunshot and instantly dove back into the pool. I hung on to the side trying to stay as low as possible. Vincent wasn't far behind me doing the same.

The water was at least warm. "Don't let any of the water get in your mouth." He said. "My blood is full of Chaos's toxins right now, not to mention tainted with the immortality curse." I did notice there were still swirls of red blood near me. It was probably because Vincent's head was still bleeding. I nodded. I wondered if that meant if I drank Vincent's blood I would be immortal like him. Hm… We both heard the gate being opened. Suddenly I felt Vincent's arm come around my waist.

"Whatever you do don't scream and don't let go." He said. I saw the red glow from behind me and suddenly I was flying up into the air at a frightening speed. Oh my God! Vincent had just transformed into Chaos! What if he throws me again! And from this height! I was sure tonight I was dying. Chaos zipped around and landed in the parking lot near the entrance to our hallway.

"Go get my gun." He said in that demonic voice. I hurried into the building and up the stairs to our hallway. I quickly ran into my apartment and opened the case with the name Cerberus written on it. I grabbed his gun and ran it back to him. When I returned I saw that he was now in his human form. I slowly approached him with his gun. He took it from me and turned his back to me not even saying thanks or anything. Poor Kenji…

∞∞∞

I woke up the next morning around 10:00 A.M. I looked at my cell phone and realized I had missed a call from Rena. She left me a voice mail saying that I better keep her updated with my situation. I really didn't want to get out of bed. Last night was ridiculous. I heard someone walking around in my kitchen. That couldn't be…

I shot out of bed and after fixing myself up a little in the bathroom, slowly walked into the kitchen. Vincent was loading my sweets cabinet with tons of junk food that I supposed he had just went out and bought. Wow did he really go out in broad daylight again?!

He didn't turn around or acknowledge me as I walked further into the kitchen and starting fixing myself a bowl of cereal. I sat at the kitchen table and looked down into my cereal as Vincent passed by the table, throwing away the sacks all his junk food came in.

I finished my cereal and walked into the living room to watch TV. Vincent was sitting in the recliner cleaning his gun. This whole ignore game was bugging the hell out of me, but what could I say to him? His reaction last night to my confession was just as I expected. Why did I even tell him?!

I turned the channel and it seemed like there was romance on every single channel. I sighed loudly and shut the TV off. Vincent sat his gun case on the floor near the recliner. I stood up and went to my room. I couldn't handle the tension in the room. As soon as I threw myself down on the bed and buried my face in a pillow I heard a voice behind me.

"Forgive me."

My head popped up and I turned and looked at Vincent who was standing in the doorway. He slowly walked over to my bed and took a seat at the end of it with his back to me. "Can you?" he asked. I assumed he was still referring to forgiving him.

"I don't know…I don't think you understand just how strong my feelings are for you. It hurt me deeply when you just walked away last night. Especially after you promised!" I hadn't meant to yell, but it just came out. I slid down to the end of the bed and sat next to him. He turned to me and studied my features.

"I'm no good for you." He said gruffly turning his gaze back to the floor. "I'm a monster…a murderer. George and Kenji were by far not the first. As a Turk I was assigned to kill a man nearly every week and I did it willingly."

"I don't care." I said. I got up and stood right in front of him ready to just let him have it. "I don't care about your past or the future, Vincent! I love you! I don't care about Chaos! I don't care if you murdered 100 men! I don't care!" Hot tears ran down my cheeks. It was like I was talking to a statue. Vincent didn't respond in any way shape or form.

Vincent sighed and glanced up at me. "Don't waste your time on me. Go live your life."

"No!" I yelled. "Why don't you start living yours?"

Vincent shot up and glared down at me. "Who are you to tell me what to do with my life?" I didn't let him intimidate me.

"Amaya Arai!!" I screamed at him. He only continued to glare down at me. Just when I thought he was going to yell back at me. I felt his soft lips against mine again only this time he pressed harder. I wrapped my arms around him and tangled my fingers up in his hair. Vincent kissed me hungrily, nipping at my lips and exploring my mouth with his warm tongue. He suddenly pulled back with a look of horror on his face.

"I can't…please forgive me…" he whispered before pulling away from me. He left my room and I heard him leave the apartment. If he doesn't stop this goddamn running away…

I buried my face in the pillow again and let out a banshee scream. Men are so _damn_ frustrating!!


	20. Advancing Revolutions

**Apartment 102**

**Advancing Revolutions **

Vincent stayed away the entire day after kissing me again. I couldn't wait up very long to see if he would even return. I knew he would have to because he had left his gun here. I finally fell asleep around one in the morning.

The creak of my door opening was enough to wake me up. I looked straight ahead at the clock. It was almost four in the morning. The dark figure I knew was Vincent, went over to my closet and began to gather his things. As much as I wanted to start yelling at him again, I didn't. I watched him for a moment then decided I had to say something to him before he got away.

"Vincent." I said softly. I reached over and turned on the lamp. "What are you doing?" I couldn't just let him walk out like this.

"Do you not wish for me to leave?" He asked with his back to me. Of course I didn't want him to leave.

"You don't have anywhere else to go right now, do you?" I wiped the sleep from my eyes. Vincent shook his head no.

"Then stay…" I said. Vincent turned around and slowly approached my bed. He looked completely exhausted. He squatted down beside my bed and looked up at me.

"Amaya…today while I was out…I did a lot of thinking. I don't understand what it's like to be in love anymore. I can't understand how you're feeling right now so forgive me for hurting you, if I did." His eyes darted back and forth between mine. I knew it probably took a lot out of him to say that. He probably spent the entire day piecing that sentence together.

I smiled slightly at him. "I'm sorry if I overwhelmed you…but I had to get that out. You don't know how bad it was killing me to hold that back." I said. He nodded then rested his elbows on my bed. His face was about a foot from mine. His long black bangs hung over his eyes as he lowered his head.

"I'm scared." He whispered. It hurt me to hear him sounding so desperate. This was not Vincent Valentine at all. He would never admit fear.

"Of what?" I whispered back as I reached out and tucked the hair that covered part of his face behind his ear. He surprisingly did not flinch at my touch.

"You." His intense gaze met mine. Scared of me?!

"Why?" I asked. Vincent lowered his eyes to my bed sheet.

"Because you make my body do things I don't want it to." He then smirked a little. "I have enough problems with the demon inside controlling me I don't need outside sources controlling my body as well." I laughed softly then began to grin at him.

My grin turned from innocent to downright naughty. This caused Vincent to shift uncomfortably. He sighed and I could feel him letting his walls down. His eyes met mine again and he touched my face with his slender pale fingers. "I cannot give you the love you deserve. I'm barely suitable to be your friend." I blinked slowly before reaching out to him.

"I'll teach you how to love again. Don't you want to love again?" Vincent looked down.

"Amaya…can we just… not talk about this." He stood and walked around to the other side of the bed. He took off his shoes and his long sleeved buttoned down shirt and invited himself under my sheets. His arms quickly came around me and pulled me against him.

"Vin…" What the hell was he doing?!

"No talking." He said sternly like a school teacher. I giggled as he snuggled his pointy nose into my neck. I reached up and turned the lamp off. Vincent held me tighter and before I knew it he had fallen asleep. I guess it should have been expected that Vincent wasn't going to want to talk about these kinds of emotions. At least he was willing to commit to the physical aspects of romance. This event lead to a whole new revolution in our relationship. It was now acceptable to cuddle, hug and occasionally share a peck or two as long as there were no words spoken. It was kind of odd at first, but after a while I got used to it. I secretly hoped that this would cause Vincent to breakdown one day and admit he was in love with me too.

∞∞∞

Three whole months went by and I was now back in school for my second year of college. This was the last year I would be living here in these apartments. This was another topic that Vincent and I chose to avoid. He didn't seem too fond of the idea of me leaving this place, but wouldn't say too much on the subject. Dwelling on it would only ruin the time we did still have together. I no longer had a cast on my arm, and even the scars on my knee had almost completely disappeared. Although the police were done investigating Vincent and found nothing wrong in his apartment or with him, he still stayed in my apartment more than he did his own. I was even finding his clothes in my closet. Relationship status wise, we were still strictly friends, but these new privileges were enough to keep me from going crazy. I guess confessing my love to him did get me somewhere.

Tonight was Wednesday I was just coming home from school carrying a thousand books. I let myself into my unlocked apartment and quickly dumped my books off in the recliner. Vincent came walking out of the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was dripping wet and clinging to his pale chest. His lips twitched into a quick half smile.

"How was class?" He pulled me into a rough hug purposely getting me wet. I squealed and pulled away from him. He kept one of his hands on his waist to keep the towel in place. Dirty thoughts of what lie beneath that towel instantly entered my mind. I quickly shook these away before Vincent the mind reader could detect them.

I rolled my eyes. "Boring like always!" I spat out as I skipped passed him into the kitchen. I let Yume loose and she skidded happily through the kitchen. Evidently Vincent had not let her out today and she was pissed off about it because she nipped at his ankles causing him to growl at her.

"Did you let her out today?" I asked as I started preparing a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. For some odd reason I had been craving one all day.

"I went out today." He said walking back down the hallway to my bedroom. He came back minutes later dressed in black pajama pants and a black T-shirt. His wet hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he now had his headband on.

"Did you say you _went out_? Vincent what is happening to you?" I asked. He strutted towards me and pinned me against the cabinets.

"You happened." He whispered before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. I could not stop smiling. I loved the dark, untouchable Vincent, but this new flirty seductive Vincent was simply irresistible. I barely believed it was really him sometimes. Occasionally I would have to pinch myself just to make sure this wasn't one of my crazy dreams. Vincent took my sandwich away from me and helped himself to the first bite of it.

"Hey loser!" I snatched it away squeezing a drop of jelly on the floor in the process. Vacuum Yume came zipping around the corner and licked up the jelly. "You didn't feed her either!"

"I said I went out, didn't I?" He turned and walked into the living room. I followed him in there and sat down on the couch with him.

"So where did you go?" I asked looking up at him. His eyes were fixed on the TV. He sighed, but didn't reply. "Vincent if you were out with other women, I'll kill you."

He finally looked down at me with one of his confused frowns. "Don't worry that's not where I was. And I'm the one who does the killing around here."

"Ok." Vincent put his arm around me and we cuddled on the couch for an hour or so before I had to buckle down and do some homework. Having Vincent around twenty-four seven like this was really taking my focus off school.

∞∞∞

Finally the weekend arrived and I absolutely _had_ to go clubbing with Rena and Lunaz or they would completely disown me. Vincent sat on my bed watching me as I got ready to go to the club. He had his arms crossed and a frown on his face. I invited him to go but he vehemently declined. So I couldn't pity him as he sat here pissed off that I wasn't going to spend the night with him.

I wore a short black miniskirt and a hot pink and white halter top. I chose my shortest skirt just to see if I would get a reaction out of Vincent. He didn't seem to take much notice of it. Even as I bent over direction in front of him, he seemed unaffected. But I knew Vincent well, no matter what he was thinking or feeling, he had amazing control over his facial features. If Vincent Valentine did not want to crack a smile he _would not_ crack a smile. No matter how much you taunt him.

After I curled my hair and did my make-up, I walked over to him and gave him a light tap on his head. He quickly snatched my wrist up and pulled me against him. "You be good." He murmured silently to me.

I nodded and rubbed the red mark he put on my wrist. "Bye Vincey honey sugar cakes." I laughed as his eyes widened. He then glared at me.

"Call me that again and those will be the last words that leave your mouth." He threatened. I pouted at him and snatched up my purse.

The club was packed full of hot sweaty people dancing. The sodas here were three dollars! I was parched by the time we left the place because there was no way I was paying that much for a can of soda. Rena and Lunaz were also pretty parched too once we left the club. This led to their new plans…

∞∞

"Vincent?" Lunaz asked as she opened the door to my apartment and saw Vincent standing there. I had no idea what time it was. I couldn't even stand on my own without Lunaz holding me up.

"Amaya we are gonna have to have a little talk about this tomorrow." She said to me.

"Uh huh…" I replied as she helped me into my apartment.

"Thanks for bringing her home safely." Vincent said politely. The way he said home made it sound like this was also his home. The room was spinning and I could no longer stand at all. Vincent caught me as I fell towards the floor. He lifted me into the air and carried me to my bedroom.

"Did I not tell you to be good?" He asked as he hovered over me. I only had one thing on my mind. I grabbed his face and kissed him. He quickly pulled away and slapped my hands away from his face. "Amaya."

"What?" I giggled then pouted up at him. "I'm hungry…go get me some food."

He shook his head and left my bedroom. The next thing I knew he was waking me up again asking me if I was still hungry. I couldn't remember had I eaten what he fixed or not because shortly after that I passed out for good.

The next morning I woke up staring straight into Vincent's pale chest. His skin looked so creamy and smooth. I ran my fingers lightly down his chest. He did not even stir. I looked down and realized I was still in my clothes from last night. That probably meant I was still wearing all the make-up from last night as well. I hurried to the bathroom to shower and wash my face. I ate breakfast, but didn't keep much of it down. None of this even stirred the sleeping Vincent. It wasn't until around one in the afternoon that sleepy head drug himself down the hallway. He glared at me every inch of the way.

"Where did you go exactly last night?" he asked. When I didn't answer quick enough he snatched me up and held my shoulders tightly. "Don't laugh because I'm being very serious. Something horrible could have happened to you."

Instead of getting angry with Vincent for being so mean I felt flattered because I knew this was his way of showing he cared about me. If something were to happen to me Vincent would not have anybody. He would go back to being completely alone. And I honestly didn't think that he wanted that.

"I'm sorry…I wasn't thinking." I looked down. Vincent let go of my shoulders but didn't stop glaring at me.

"Obviously." He turned his back to me and began fixing himself something to eat. "I can't afford to lose you." He spoke in a softer tone, but didn't look in my direction. "So don't do anything stupid." I sighed and sat down at the kitchen table. Yume began barking loudly upon hearing and smelling food being prepared. Vincent muttered something about a stupid dog and I thought I heard him ask himself why he bought her. He then started a coughing fit.

"You ok?" I quickly stood and walked over to him.

"No." he said simply. "As if I hadn't had enough on my hands last night, Chaos was trying to get out." So it seemed we were both gonna have to lie around and sip green tea all day. I was severely hung over and evidently Chaos had let out some serious toxins into Vincent's blood because he looked like complete crap.

And as soon as I thought this day couldn't get any crappier, I heard a familiar ringtone coming from my cell phone. What the hell did Trace want _now?!_


	21. Confusion

**Apartment 102**

**Confusion**

Vincent looked up at me from the couch when heard my phone ring. Suddenly, as soon as I reached for my purse, Vincent sat up and snatched my purse into his lap in one swift movement. He dug through its contents and pulled out my sparkly flip phone. He flipped it open, paused for a brief moment then spoke.

"Do not call her anymore." I didn't even try to stop my mouth from falling open. I heard Trace yelling on the other end from where I sat.

"Who is this!?"

"Vincent Valentine." He answered nonchalantly.

"Give Amaya the goddamn phone!" I heard Trace yell. Vincent held the phone away from his ear to prevent going deaf from all the screaming and threatening Trace was doing on the other end.

"Trace? She's not yours anymore. Do not ever call her again." He hung up giving Trace no more time to talk. He then began punching buttons that I could not see. I assumed he blocked Trace's number because as he put my phone back in my purse I heard him mutter. "That takes care of that."

I smiled and hopped off the recliner I was sitting in. I sat down in Vincent's lap and wrapped my arms around his neck. He responded by putting his hands on my waist and looking up at me.

"If I'm not Trace's anymore than whose property am I?" I grinned at him. He looked down and sighed quietly.

"Amaya you are no one's _property_." I frowned at that response. I was hoping he'd tell me now I was his, but I knew I was expecting too much. I tried again at getting the answer that I wanted to hear.

"I know that, but what I meant was if Trace doesn't have me anymore, then who does? I'm not the kind of girl that can run around single for long."

"Try it, its not that bad." He said easing me off of his lap and rising to walk into the kitchen for some more tea. Obviously I was not gonna get the kind of response I wanted out of him so I gave up. I crossed my arms and pouted while he was gone then quickly changed my expression as I saw him coming back into the living room with two mugs of hot green tea.

"You are amazing." I said to him as he handed me mine. I still felt like complete crap and Vincent still looked it.

"I try." He muttered before taking the first sip of his. We sat watching TV for the longest time until I fell asleep. When I woke up an hour later I found Vincent sitting Indian style on the floor flipping through a photo album of my baby pictures. He had a smirk on his face that kept growing with every page he looked at. I then remembered one picture in there he could definitely not see. I shot off the couch reached out for the photo album. Vincent stood and held it high above his head.

"I'm not finished." He said sending me a mock glare. The only way I could tell this was a _mock_ glare instead of his real one was that his eyes didn't have that fire in them.

"Vincent please!" I reached out for the album but he wouldn't give it to me. Instead he turned his back to me and kept looking until he saw the picture I was afraid of. I was about three years old then. I had on a pair of my mother's white sunglasses that were slightly pulled down. I had bright red lipstick, and rosy red cheeks from the blush I was wearing. My back was to the camera, but I had my upper half turned slightly and my head looking over my shoulder. One of my little hands was on my hip and the other was on the sunglasses pulling them down so the camera could catch my eyes. My hair was pulled up into a side ponytail with no bangs or anything. The worst part of the photo was that I had on a feather boa…and nothing else. My pale backside was fully exposed.

Vincent turned to me with a smirk on his face. He cleared his throat a few times trying to hold back, but soon bursted into full out laughter. Although I was embarrassed I could only smile. Vincent Valentine was laughing! He gasped for air and then let out a whole other round of laughter. After about five minutes of appreciating that this dark stoic man was laughing so hard, I was fed up.

"It's not funny, jerk!" I gave him a push that sent him nowhere and ran off to my bedroom. Vincent followed me in there tackled me with a hug.

"That was cute." And now he's using words like _cute!?_ "Come on, let's go over to my place." He said that as if his place was really that far from here.

"Why?" I asked as I was being dragged away by my arm. He didn't answer me, but quickly checked to see if Yume was fed, and had water, then took me into his apartment. I followed him into his bedroom and sat on his bed while he searched through a box he had underneath his bed. He finally pulled out a small envelope and tossed it into my lap. I opened it and found a small stack of photos. Being that Vincent was sixty something, they were old photos.

There was a little boy with a cute bowl cut wearing a suit, and a fierce frown sitting on a bench. I grinned. "Is that you?"

Vincent nodded. I moved onto the next photo which was of a gorgeous woman with long black hair holding a baby whose face was hidden by the blanket he was covered in. I assumed this was his mother. I flipped through the rest of them which were all school pictures of Vincent up until his senior year of high school. He was so handsome even then, but he wasn't smiling in any of his photos.

"Thanks for letting me see those, Vincent." I said handing him the stack of photos. I noticed he was holding something behind his back. I narrowed my eyes at him and reached for it. Vincent didn't try to keep it from me so I easily grabbed it.

I covered my mouth and gasped. Vincent looked as if he was about seven years old. He was sitting in what looked like could have been his childhood bedroom. He was turned to the side with his knees up to his chest wearing only a pair of briefs. Only he was wearing them on his head, the rest of him completely nude, although nothing personal was shown, unlike in mine. I busted out laughing and handed the picture back to him. So we both had embarrassing naked photos. I didn't feel so bad after that. "Do you still run around naked wearing briefs on your head?" I would probably die at the sight of that.

"It depends…do you still run around in only a scarf?" He retaliated. I frowned at him before grabbing one of his pillows and hitting him across the head with it.

"It was a boa, anyways, dummy! I was a diva child."

He ripped the pillow out of my hand and wacked me with it until I begged him to stop.

Later that night after many rounds Need for Speed I decided I should probably be heading back to my apartment. I needed to get some sleep because I had class the next day. I poked Vincent who was leaning against me half asleep. But first I wanted to ask him a very important question. I hoped it wouldn't piss him off and make him not speak to me.

"What are we?" I asked him.

He frowned and shrugged. "Amaya you know I don't like talking about that kind of stuff."

I sighed and nodded. I didn't want to push him any further than that so I spoke again.

"Vincent…I'm gonna go, ok?" He nodded then sat up and pulled me into a hug.

"Stay inside tonight." He whispered close to my ear. I didn't need to ask why. Vincent looked horrible he was gonna have to let Chaos out sooner or later. I nodded and pulled away from him. He gave me a quick half smile before looking down at his black coffee table as I stood and left.

∞∞∞

I woke up the next morning with an arm thrown around my waist and warm breath against my neck. I slowly turned my head, brushing noses with none other than Vincent Valentine in the process. He was still dead to the world and I knew pretty much nothing I did was going to wake him in this state so I slid his arm off my and got up. I then wondered how he even got in here I was sure I locked my door last night. Today was Monday and I had a class that started in one hour so I needed to start rushing around to get ready in time. I trusted that Vincent was fast asleep so I changed right there in front of his sleeping form. I wore some lazy grey capris and a tight fitted white T-shirt. I pulled my hair back in a loose, sloppy bun, grabbed my purse and book bag, then headed off.

This semester Rena and I actually made sure we had every class at the same time and in the same place. Our first class was a geography class. After that long, boring class let out we sat in the library together until our next class started. After the next class it was time for our lunch break where we met up with Lunaz.

"Amaya, you have to tell me what's going on with you and Vincent!" she demanded before she even planted herself in the seat next to me. We were all eating cheeseburgers and fries. Rena, and I were drinking mountain dews but the health conscious Lunaz was drinking vitamin water from the vending machines outside.

I smiled. "I'm not sure. He doesn't like talking about 'us'." Lunaz and Rena both let out a 'psh' and rolled their eyes.

"So what are you going to do?" Rena asked.

"I don't know. I'm content right now. He at least treats me like we're together. He even answered my phone when Trace called and told him to never call me again."

This caused another 'psh' from the both of them. "Girl you better lay down the law. He needs to realize that just cause he's not aging and has all the time in the world doesn't mean you do. You can't be waiting around for him. How long have you known each other now? More than a year?" Rena looked as if she were more frustrated by my situation than I was. "I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Valentine."

I almost choked on my cheeseburger. "No! Don't… He'll just get all pissed off and not talk to me for a week. Maybe he's just afraid of labels, you know? A lot of people are like that."

"That's dumb." Lunaz said. Both Rena and I just looked at her. "Isn't it?"

"It sure is! You just need to sit him down and tell him how things are." Rena said.

"I don't know, I'm not even sure he totally feels the same. He admitted to me that he doesn't remember what it feels like to love anyone. I don't want to rush him." I didn't want to tell them that I was thinking about drinking his blood to become immortal with him. They would probably both freak out and maybe even abandon me. I need my friends right now…

∞∞∞

"Vincent?" I called as I walked into my apartment. It was now around five in the afternoon. I tossed my bag on the floor next to the recliner and checked my apartment for him. He was still fast asleep in my bed, lying on his back. I ran, jumped, and landed right on him. He groaned and turned his head to the side. I squealed as I felt his hands creeping up my sides.

"You sleepy head." I whispered to him. He turned his head to face me and looked down at my lips. "Nope." I said quickly pressing my thumb against his lips. "Until you tell me exactly what we are,there can't be anymore of that." After talking to Rena and Lunaz I came up with a new plan to break Vincent down. Take away all some of the benefits of this new 'friendship'. I sat up, still on top of him and pulled his hands off of my sides. "Or that."

Vincent sat up and lifted me off of his lap. "Then I guess that means you can't sit there." He slid off my bed and walked out of the bedroom. I wanted to throw something at the back of his head. Well this plan had failed.

I walked into the living room and sat next to him on the couch. He ignored my presence and picked up one of the magazines that was lying on the coffee table. I knew he was just doing this to piss me off because since when did Vincent Valentine give a shit about celebrities or fashion.

I got up and grabbed my books. If he was going to ignore me I might as well do my homework. After about an hour of this game I was the one who broke down. "Vincent, I'm hungry take me out to dinner."

"Hmm…I don't know if it's appropriate for a friend to take _just a friend_ out to dinner." He answered very quickly. I lifted my book like I was going to throw it at him. He didn't even flinch or blink.

Instead I threw the book down on the floor and stood up. "Is that really all you want, Vincent? Just a friendship?"

"I was content with the place we were at." He brought his eyes back down to the magazine.

"Where was that?" I asked.

He shrugged. I wanted to slap him so hard his head would spin. Does he enjoy confusing the hell out of me!? Is this game fun for him?! Because it's not fun for me anymore. In face it was never really fun to start with. I stared at him for the longest time while he continued to ignore me. He continued this up until I went to bed.

I woke up the next morning alone. Only with the scent of Vincent in my sheets. Today I only had one class and it didn't start until one o'clock in the afternoon. I called Rena at around eleven thirty. We talked for about fifteen minutes about how things were going with her and Reno. It seemed that she had finally met a person who partied harder than she did and she wasn't liking it. She claimed she could never get a sober moment with Reno, and it was starting to get annoying. We then started talking about my situation and she came up with what I thought was the perfect plan. Rena was going to set me up with a blind date. Let's see how Vincent deals with that…


	22. Jealousy

**Apartment 102**

**Jealousy**

About a week later things had seemed to be back where they were. Vincent spent most of his time making himself at home in my apartment, having his way with me without explanations, pretty much the norm. Just when I was about to pick up the phone to call Rena and ask her what was taking so long with this blind date plan, my phone rang.

"Hey Rena, what's up?" I was lounging on the couch reading a book for English class while Vincent was dozing off in the recliner.

"I got you a blind date!! What are you doing tomorrow night at seven?" Today was Wednesday and tomorrow I only had one class at noon so of course I would be free tomorrow night at seven.

"I'm not doing anything." I saw Vincent's eyes snap open, but he didn't turn and look at me.

"Oooh girl and he's super hot!" she said. To add to Vincent's suspicions I squealed and giggled like a fourteen year old.

"What's his name?" I asked her. I thought I saw Vincent's eye twitch.

"Matsuda, but he goes by Matt." She said in more serious voice.

"Hmm…well I hope I can trust you on this one." I started trying to wrap up the conversation before Vincent busts a blood vessel.

"You know I would never let you down." She then whispered. "I've already got your second date planned out…and I'm going to make sure Vincent is there to witness it. If that doesn't push him over the edge then he must not be into you at all." I hoped that wasn't the case!

After hanging up with Rena I felt crimson eyes burning into my flesh. He then cleared his throat.

"Big plans on Thursday?" he asked. He had the tone of not caring whether I did or not.

"Umm….yeah." I didn't think there was any need to lie. The whole point of this was for him to know and get jealous. "Rena's setting me up with a blind date."

"Hm…" he said. His face remained emotionless and he lowered his eyes to his pale hands in his lap. He didn't say a word to me for the rest of the evening and instead of sharing my bed with me, ran off later that night to God knows where. I was starting to feel a little bad about this. I even called Rena and contemplated cancelling the date, but she refused to let me back down so I didn't.

∞∞∞

I spent nearly an hour and a half in the bathroom preparing for this date. I wore my hair down and curled it. I teased it up quite a bit and sprayed tons of hair spray in it to make it look like it actually had volume. It was still the beginning of September so it was pretty warm outside. So I chose to wear a knee length brown skirt and a pink tank top with thick brown stripes on it. I hurried out of the bathroom when I heard my cell phone ringing. I ran into the living room and caught Vincent digging through my purse for my cell phone. As soon as he saw me he quickly threw the purse on the coffee table and tried to look nonchalant. I did all I could not to just explode with laughter because that must have been the funniest thing I had ever seen Vincent Valentine do. However, I pretended I didn't just notice the obvious and answered my phone.

"Hello?"

"Is this…Amaya?" I had to admit this guy had a sexy voice. Not quite as good as the one behind me, but good enough.

"Yes this is she. Is this Matt?" I could feel Vincent's death glare tearing into me, but I never turned around to face him. Instead I walked off to my bedroom to squirt some perfume and touch up my make up one last time. Matt had called to tell me he'd be here in ten minutes.

"Bye Vincent. Don't forget to feed Yume!"

He was too busy glaring off into space to pay attention to me as I walked out the door. I laughed to myself as I walked down the hallway. Oh Vincent… I still had a grin on my face as I walked out of the apartment building into the parking lot. There was a black beat up sports car parked next to my dinted up red Ford Escort. I watched as this Matt guy got out of his car. He was decent looking. He had a little bit of a rocker edge to him, with his long spiky hair, dark clothing, and gaudy jewelry. I noticed the one inch gauges in his ears first thing.

"Rena was right, you're pretty hot." He instantly wrapped his arm around my shoulder making me feel a bit uncomfortable. I smiled up at him.

"Thanks..." I said.

The date with Matt was awkward, not because of silences or anything, but he was just extremely friendly and had no problem asking personal questions. He took me to a sushi bar that was located more than thirty minutes away from the apartments, in his neck of the woods. A couple of his friends and their girlfriends met up with us there so it wasn't just us. I was thankful for that. He brought me back home at around ten o'clock at night.

"Can I walk you to your apartment?" he asked politely. I thought for a moment. I wanted to bring him up there just to see how jealous it would make Vincent, but then again, I didn't want Matt to get shot or anything so I had think up an excuse.

"Uh…it's a long walk…I don't want you getting lost on your way back out here." I laughed nervously and hoped he would just get the hint and go on home. He seemed to.

"Ok. Well, I'll give you a call, sometime. We definitely gotta go out again." He pulled me into a rough hug. He smelled like sushi and cigarettes. I imagined I did too. I smiled and waved good bye to him then hurried off to my apartment.

I unlocked my door and put my purse on the coffee table. A few seconds later Vincent came out of my bathroom in his pajamas with soaking wet hair. I wanted to just take a towel and dry it for him as he was dripping water everywhere. I turned to face him and he narrowed his eyes at me.

"Have fun?" He was trying way too hard to pretend he didn't care.

"Yeah it was great. It's nice being around a guy who can act and talk romantically and is not afraid to say how he feels. Even if it was only a first date." I showed him a smug little smile and walked right past him as he glared down at me. He is really good at that.

Vincent didn't respond to my comment. I was beginning to wonder if he didn't get what I meant by it. After chopping up an apple and getting some caramel dip, I sat down on the floor by the coffee table and pulled out my book I needed to finish for English class next week. I ignored Vincent much like he used to ignore me. I heard a growl come from his area. He coughed a few times and rubbed his chest. I knew this to be something he did while Chaos was stirring. I wanted to smirk. So he really was getting pissed off. Come on Valentine all you have to do is breakdown and tell me what I wanna hear.

∞∞∞

Two weeks passed by. Matt and I hadn't gone out again, but he called me every night and we talked for about an hour each time. I usually prolonged these conversations just to piss Vincent off. I caught him clenching his fists and biting his lips several times during these conversations. But he still hadn't broken down. He pretended not to care and for the last week he had spent most of his time in his own apartment. He pretended to only come by to check on Yume. But it did not take three hours a day to feed and check on a dog. Seriously.

Tonight Rena was having a house party. I assumed this is what she meant by me and Matt's second date. I don't know how she was going to get Vincent to witness it. I wore a dressy white shirt, and a black knee length mildly frilly skirt. I wore my hair down again and wore minimal make up. The party was at seven but since this was my best friend in the world, I thought I should be the first there so I left at five fourty-five. Vincent was nowhere in sight this evening.

"Maya!" Rena greeted me as she opened the door. Her parents were on vacation again so she had their place to herself. "Can you stay here and greet the guests for a while? Lunaz should be here any minute. I need to go get our _special _guest."

"Wait…"

"Bye now!" she said leaving me to time to question her any further. I sighed and plopped down on their fluffy tan couch. The doorbell rang about eleven minutes later an as Rena promised Lunaz was there to help me greet her party guest. Within an hour later more than forty people had arrived. I should have expected there to be tons of guests. Rena was the networking queen. Luckily she had already prepared the snacks and all Lunaz and I had to do was serve them. Rena's policy was that if you wanted to drink you must bring your own alcohol so there were tons of people walking in with random types of liquor. I saw more Vodka than anything else.

"Hey!" I was greeted with a hug from behind. "Rena told me you'd be here. That's the only reason I came." Matt said smiling cheerfully. I now realized that I was going to end up feeling double guilty. I already felt guilty for toying with Vincent's emotions, but I would eventually feel guilty for hurting Matt if he really starts to like me.

"Same here. She told me this would be our second date." I said smiling at him. I didn't really had to look up to him. He was only a few inches taller than me, which would categorize him as short.

"Let's go sit outside by the pool." He said taking my hand and leading me away. Lunaz gave me a look that pleaded not to leave her by herself, but I had no choice as I was being dragged away through the crowded living room. Matt took off his shoes and rolled up his black pant legs. He then offered to take off my shoes but I had to decline. I've always had a weird fear of people touching my feet. We both sat on the side of the pool with our legs in the water. I kicked my feet slowly.

"So…do you see any boyfriend potential in me?" he asked laughing nervously. I smiled.

"I don't know… I mean…sure…I guess." He laughed at my rambling.

"It's cool. I know we haven't known each other for that long, but you're like my dream girl." He turned and looked at me seriously. He then squinted past me at something or someone. After observing whatever it was he was looking at he then rested his eyes back on me. He scooted towards me and reached up to touch my face. "I forgot to give you something on our last date."

"Hmm?" I looked at him with wide confused eyes. His lids slowly shut and he leaned towards me. I closed my eyes as well and leaned towards him. We both froze and our eyes quickly snapped open upon hearing a clicking sound close by. People were running inside and women were screaming. I almost panicked myself but then I heard that voice.

"Forgive me." He paused to place his gun back its holder on his belt. "I thought you were about to kiss her."

He grabbed my wrist and snatched me up quicker than lightening. I yanked my wrist back a little too hard and sent my self flying backwards towards the pool. Vincent tried to catch me, but his foot slipped on the slippery part of the edge of the pool and he went flying in with me.

We both surfaced gasping for air and glaring at each other. "What are you doing here?!" I snapped.

"I was invited." He said with a smart ass attitude. I wanted to slap him but contained it.

"So? You never go to parties!" I crossed my arms and blinked a few times as water ran into my eyes. I had to wipe them a couple of times. Vincent was doing the same. He wore a white buttoned down shirt with a black wife beater underneath and black pants. His hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail, still with that bandana wrapped around his head.

Vincent came at me pretty quick for being in water. He roughly picked me up and sat me on the side of the pool. "We're going home." He said jumping out of the water, snatching up my wrist and dragging me off.

"Let go of me." I said in a normal voice as to not make a scene. Matt suddenly ran towards us.

"Hey man…what's your deal?" he asked. Vincent whipped around and glared at him. I heard the internal growling that must have come from Chaos and instantly decided I had better just obey Vincent right now.

"Whoa dude…sorry." Matt said waving his hands in defeat. Vincent turned around and continued out of the place with me in tow. He opened his car door and shoved me inside, slamming the door after me.

"Hey!" I yelled. He nearly cut my foot off in the door! He got in the driver's side and slammed the door. He peeled out, spitting gravel from the driveway everywhere as he drove off. About five minutes down the highway he began swerving all over the road. I looked over and saw him holding his chest.

"Uh…Vin…"

"Just shut up, Amaya." I obeyed even though that was really harsh. After a few minutes he spoke again.

"Is this the reaction you were looking for with this game of yours? Also…I don't appreciate you telling everything that goes on between us to your idiotic friends. Rena gave me quite the ear full on the way down there and if it wasn't for the fact she was your best friend, I would have put a bullet through her head."

I was too concerned about his erratic driving to worry about getting pissed at his comment. "Slow down!"

Vincent revved up swooping left and right passed the other cars on the highway.

"Vincent!!" I screamed as we almost rear ended a white Buick. "Don't forget I _can_ die!" I sighed with relief as he began to slow down. He was still swerving slightly and had a hold of his chest. I could just imagine myself sitting in here with Chaos driving. "Pull over and let me drive."

Vincent ignored me and continued. I thanked God out loud once we made it to the apartments. Vincent staggered out of the vehicle and to the door. He made it up the stairs and halfway down the hallway before passing out. To be honest, I was relieved. Vincent looked like he was ready to take me into that apartment and just let me have it. And not in a good way. I guess I couldn't blame him for being mad. I knew this was a stupid game to play especially with someone like him. Well at least I knew he did care for me in that way. Like Rena said, if he didn't like me like that, he wouldn't have cared. I realized something amazing. Vincent Valentine went to public party, threatened a guy, jumped in a pool, and drove while Chaos was trying to break through all for me. I hope I meant something to him.


	23. To the Next Level

**Apartment 102**

**To the Next Level**

Vincent had been out for nearly an hour. I had quickly made him some green tea and sat it on the coffee table that was less than a foot from him. It was probably pretty cool by now. I cautiously walked back into the room scared that I would find him awake. I wasn't sure just what he would do next. I peered over the couch and down on the floor where he lie still out. Suddenly my cell phone rang. I had it on the loudest volume, afraid that if it rang I wouldn't hear it while I was at the party so in this silent living room, the shrill sound could make your ears bleed. I hurried to my purse and quickly answered it.

"Hello?"

"Maya? Are you ok? I saw Vincent dragging you off… He didn't put his hands on you did he? Cause I'll beat his ass right now. Demon or not!" Rena yelled loudly. I could hear people talking and music in the back ground so I assumed her party was still going.

"I'm fine. We're at my apartment now…" I heard stirring and a soft groan from behind me that made my stomach drop. I swallowed hard.

"Ok. Call me tomorrow and tell me everything that happened." She said before hanging up. She was probably wasted already. I sighed and tossed my phone back down in my purse that was sitting in the recliner. I turned around and screamed out loud when I saw Vincent staring down at me.

I swallowed hard again and stared up at him. I'm sure I resembled a sad puppy who had just been scolded. This look only caused his sharp features to darken.

"Vin…" I started ready to explain everything.

"If you wish to move on with your life and find a worthy partner, Amaya, just be honest with me and do so. That is not the reason I am upset with you." He took another step towards me. I backed up and sat on the arm of the recliner. I looked down at the floor.

"I'm sorry…" was all I could say. "I…you know how I feel about you…I'm not trying to find anyone else…" I didn't want to use the word love again because the good lord knows where that word gets you with Vincent Valentine.

"Then what were your motives? To make me jealous of the fact that if you wanted you could have any _normal_ man you wanted?" Vincent actually sounded hurt. I quickly jerked my head up to look at him and stood so that our bodies were nearly touching.

"No! That's not what I meant by this! I was starting to think you didn't have any feelings for me at all…so to test that…"

"I don't need anyone _testing_ me, Amaya. I've been _tested_ enough!" He yelled. I honestly never thought this little game would make him so mad.

"I'm sorry!" I yelled back pushing my chest against his.

"You…" Vincent started, pointing his finger in my face.

"No!" I slapped his finger out of my face. "Vincent…" I started in a softer voice. "I know you don't understand how I'm feeling right now so…"

"Have you even considered how I might be feeling right now?" Vincent asked. He had also softened his tone. Well considering he never offers to tell anyone his feelings; no I hadn't really thought about them. I looked up at him waiting for him to continue.

"Do you know what it's like to have your heart ripped out of your chest by the one you love the most? I loved that woman so much I would have done anything to only see her smile." He paused and looked away. "When I told you the story…I said that when I asked her to run away with me she hesitated." He turned to me again. "What really happened was when I asked that of her I confessed my love to her at that moment as well and she shot me down. I was just a _game_ to her. I was a mere distraction from her rocky relationship with her husband. Nothing more. That is why…in reality I…let Chaos kill her."

After hearing Vincent's true story, tears began to flow down my cheeks as I realized what he was getting at. How was he supposed to trust his already broken heart with me if I'm going to play games like that? How did he know he wasn't just a mere distraction from my deteriorated relationship with Trace? "I'm sorry…" I whispered. I threw my arms around him and buried my face into his chest. "I'm so sorry, Vincent." He refused to hug me back, but I held him for over three minutes. I then stood on my tip toes and pulled his face down to mine and kissed his lips. He tried to fight me off at first, but as soon as I moaned in objection and ran my hand down his back he gave in and kissed back. I had to sit back down on the arm of the recliner as I couldn't support Vincent weight as he leaned against me. He broke the kiss only to take a breath and capture my lips again. He touched my cheek with a shaky hand while his gloved hand was resting on my hip. He ran his hand from my cheek to my shoulder causing a tingling sensation throughout my whole body.

"I do love you. I really do." I whispered to him. My lips were warm and wet from his passionate kisses. His eyes scanned my face with an impassive look. I was mentally praying that those words wouldn't send him running off again.

"Do you…" I could barely recognize this as a question from his monotone voice.

"Yes. I don't know if you know what it's like to love someone so deeply that walks around acting like they don't care." I said in a normal voice. He brought his lips so close to my ear that I could feel them moving as he whispered.

"Want to know why I nearly shot your blind date?"

I nodded.

"I care." He answered. "I was not about to let him put his lips on you." He pulled back and looked at me. I gave him a tired smile and another peck on his lips.

Vincent scooped me up from the chair bridal style and carried me into my bedroom. I must have looked exhausted thus explaining why he brought me to my bed. At first I must admit I almost expected him to throw me down on the bed and fuck me stupid, but I quickly cancelled that thought as soon as I remembered this was Vincent Valentine.

I watched as he went to my dresser and pulled out a _matching_ pair of pajamas for me. He tossed them at me then reached in a different drawer and pulled out a pair of _Trace's_ shorts and one of my T-shirts for himself to sleep in. He left the room to change while I changed in my bedroom. When he returned I had to laugh out loud. The shorts fit him fine, but my shirt was awfully tight on him. Literally Simon Cowell tight. Even a tiny little strip of his midriff was showing. Vincent rolled his eyes at me obviously too tired and was probably feeling too sick to care. He climbed under my sheets with me and demanded I turn the lamp off. The moon was hiding tonight so my room was pitch black without its light.

"Vincent." I said into the darkness.

"Hm?"

"So…what all did Rena have to say?" I squealed as I felt his fingers slightly tickling my sides as he pulled me closer to him.

"Something along the lines of…'don't think my friend is going to wait around forever for you' 'it's not fair to her' 'I can't understand why she even likes you anyways you're so damn morbid' 'If you hurt my friend I will chase you down and saw your ass to pieces with a chainsaw and put a piece of your body on each corner of the Earth.' Shall I go on?"

I laughed softly. "No you don't have to. I'm sorry about that too."

Vincent did that cute little snuggling thing that he does with his nose in my neck. I don't know how I've made it so many nights without him sleeping next to me.

"Vincent?" I said after a few minutes of silence.

"What?" he seemed annoyed so it discouraged me a little in asking the question I wanted to.

"Can I call you my boyfriend? Because technically that's what you are to me. I mean because you said you don't want other guys putting their lips on me and I sure as hell don't even want any other women looking at you."

Vincent snorted. "I suppose so…but…"

"Goodnight." I said quickly before Vincent could ruin the mood with some sort of depressing remark.

∞∞∞

The next couple of days went by smoothly. So far Vincent had been a good boyfriend. I made him take my picture with his phone and put it as his background. I also made him take hundreds of pictures with me all over the apartments. We took one by the fountain, on the tennis court, by the pool, leaning up against a tree, and in various other places. Rena and Lunaz were of great help. We got them printed the same day and put into frames which I forced him to put all over his bedroom. He claimed to not see the point in any of this, but when I asked him if he wanted to be a good boyfriend he replied that he needed to be even better to compensate for his demon problems. Personally I was just happy that we had finally made it to this level. Even though he still hadn't told me he loved me or anything. I'm pretty sure I have never heard him say 'Amaya I really like you.'

Today was Tuesday and I had just one morning class today. My mother and brother Satoshi were coming over to have dinner with me and Vincent. Except they didn't know that Vincent would be joining us and Vincent didn't know my mother and brother were coming over.

"Are we going somewhere?" Vincent asked as I threw a light grey buttoned down, short sleeved shirt for him to wear on the bed. I was in his apartment because that's where he had been hanging out during the day while I was at class. We even bought Yume a cage for over there too.

"Sure." I lied throwing a pair of light blue jeans with a grey logo on the back pocket. Yes, I had gone shopping for him. The poor man needed it. Once he was dressed I demanded that he pull his hair back and take off that silly bandana.

"Can you just tell me where we are going?" He asked for the three hundredth time. I sighed loudly as I took his hand and dragged him into my apartment. I had already prepared all of the food and as soon as he smelted it he groaned. "Please do not tell me you invited Reno and Rena over for dinner."

I gasped. "No! I didn't! But even if I did, what would be wrong with that?! A good boyfriend tries to get along with his girlfriend's friends." I saw him roll his eyes as he followed me into the kitchen where I had the small table decorated. There were bright red place mats that went along with all of the other red stuff in my kitchen. My apartment was very colorful unlike Vincent's. Every room of his was decorated in black or dark gloomy colors. My living room was the only room with a neutral tan and black coloring. My bedroom was lime green and royal blue, my bathroom was pink, and my kitchen was red and white.

"Who's coming?" he demanded while looking over at the table. I smiled and jumped up to give him a quick kiss.

"Don't worry about it." I skipped off into the living room.

"Amaya…" Vincent said in a warning tone.

"What?!" I called to him from the living room. He walked in there giving me that death glare that used to scare the shit out of me. I winked at him. All of a sudden someone was banging at my door.

"Ama chan!!!!!!" I heard that loud obnoxious voice yell. Vincent's face paled.

I opened up the door to find only my brother standing there. To be perfectly honest I was kind of glad my mom did not show. I didn't even ask Satoshi where she was.

"Mom's not coming; she said something about not liking the company you were in. I guess she was talking about…him…" he nodded his head towards Vincent.

"She's being a bitch like normal, Satoshi this is Vincent." I turned to Vincent who seemed to be slowly regaining the tiny bit of color his face normally held. "Vincent this is my oldest brother Satoshi."The two men nodded at each other.

The three of us then sat down at my little table and started in on the dinner I had prepared. It consisted of some basic Asian noodles, steamed vegetables, and a loaf of homemade bread that I was so proud of.

"So this is your new boyfriend?" Satoshi asked looking at Vincent. Vincent looked down at his plate.

"Yeah…" I answered awkwardly.

"Hm." Satoshi shrugged. "So…uh Vincent…you actually put up with this?" he nodded towards me. I glared at him.

Vincent smiled slightly. "Yes, I do."

"Well, that's good enough for me. Anyone who can put up with her is approved by me." He laughed and kicked me under the table. I was so close to throwing my drink in his face. But then I realized that at least he approved of Vincent. That was at least one person on our side besides my two good friends.

"So will you try talking to mom for me?" I asked grinning at him. He sighed loudly.

"You know, you can't get anything through that woman's thick head. She was set on you marrying Trace because his family has money." He said through a mouth full of food. "And isn't this the guy that caused your accident a while back?"

"It was an accident." I said quickly and defensively. Satoshi put his hands up in defeat.

"Just asking."

"What are you guys gonna do when you gotta move out west with Aunt Megumi?" Satoshi asked. Vincent and I both remained silent. This still was not a topic to be discussed. I really didn't even want to think about it.

"Uh…yeah…I see…" Satoshi said awkwardly.

The dinner went pretty smoothly after that. Vincent and Satoshi didn't really talk much but there was no tension. Not any that I could sense. And right before Satoshi left he turned to Vincent and told him he better take good care of his little sister. Vincent promised he would.

"You were about to invite your mother over here without telling me first?" Vincent crossed his arms and frowned down at me.

"Uh…"

Vincent tackled me and we both landed on the couch. He dug his fingers into my sides almost painfully. I screamed out with laughter. "Stop!!"

"No, you were going to put me through hell just now. So I'll put you through it for the rest of the night." He chuckled evilly as he stopped tickling me and simply just laid on top of me not allowing me to move.

∞∞∞

The next couple of weeks were almost perfect. Vincent was proving to be a great boyfriend. He surprised me with flowers, another bracelet, and a new racing game for my playstation. Of course he did this in his own Vincenty way. I would come home from class to see a vase full of gorgeous flowers and I would ask him were those for me and he would reply. "I don't know…are they?"

Or with the bracelet I asked if he bought it for me and he replied. "One would think."

It was now the first week of October. I had just recently found out that Vincent's birthday was October 13th…


	24. A Birthday for the Ageless

**Apartment 102**

**A Birthday for the Ageless**

I sat at the cafeteria table with Lunaz and Rena as we had lunch together. While they were chatting it up about their sex lives with Reno and Cloud, I slowly began to daze off thinking of other things. Tomorrow was Vincent's birthday and I still hadn't even got him a card! An ironic thought then occurred to me. Last year at this time October 13th had fallen on a Friday and I spent the day inside the house too paranoid to come out as I would be struck with bad luck. How ironic was it that this unlucky day had been Vincent's birthday. However this year it would land on a Thursday and I wanted to do my best to make this a very lucky day for Vincent, but I had no idea what to do for him. He didn't like parties, he didn't know how to except even the smallest gifts such as a tea set so God knows what he would do if I tried to buy him something big.

"Yo! Earth to Maya." Rena said waving her hand in front of my face. "What's up with you today? Don't tell me Vincent's being a retard again because I'll…"

"No…no! He's been really good! I was just thinking about what I'm going to do for his birthday tomorrow."

"His birthday is tomorrow!" Rena exclaimed.

"…but he doesn't age…I thought." Lunaz said giving us both a confused look. Rena rolled her eyes and gave Lunaz a soft push on the shoulder.

"He was still born, you airhead."

"Oh…" she said looking down at the table. I sighed as I pushed my tray aside, unable to eat anymore. Rena's lips turned into a slightly naughty smile.

"Girls we are skipping class today and going to the mall." She said standing suddenly to dump her tray. Lunaz and I exchanged confused glances.

∞∞∞

I tried to conceal my shopping bags as best as I could as I walked through the door of my apartment. Rena forced me to buy some rather suggestive lingerie including a black and red corset top and tiny little black underwear with a small trim of frilly red lace. She bought me a set of furry, black hand cuffs, a blind fold, a whip, and some massage oils. We even went to the grocery store and bought whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and strawberries. The horny young male that served as our cashier asked if he could join the party tonight. I guess it did look kind of odd, three pretty girls buying just those objects together. I got the hint Rena was trying to give me and I didn't quite think her idea of a birthday present would suit Vincent at all, but there was no telling her no. A massage maybe, but…hand cuffs? That was almost too much for me even. Whipped cream!? Oh God…

Vincent appeared to be asleep in the recliner but as soon as I shut the door he turned to face me. His eyes widened slightly upon seeing the label on one of the bags I held. "Do I even want to ask where you've been?"

I shook my head no and hurried to my room to hide all of the _supplies_. The major items that made my mission most obvious were the two boxes of condoms. One was flavored and the others were the normal kind made to please the women. I shoved those things into a place I knew Vincent would never venture into: my underwear drawer.

I slammed the drawer shut as soon as I saw a tall figure approach my doorway. Vincent slowly walked up to me and wrapped his arms around me from behind. We were standing right in front of my dresser in front of the mirror so I didn't have to turn to look at him but stared straight ahead at us in the mirror. Vincent glanced up into it, but quickly averted his glance elsewhere as if he were afraid of his own reflection.

I tried to lighten up the mood a little bit by asking him. "So what do you wanna do for your birthday tomorrow? It's Thursday and I don't have class so we can do whatever you wanna do. Go wherever you wanna go."

He showed a typical Vincent smile or rather the slight lifting of a lip corner. I hated how it was so rare seeing a full genuine smile light up those handsome features. "It's just another day. I don't care what we do."

"Well I care. What do you want?" I asked swaying slightly in his arms. He surprisingly swayed with me almost as if we were dancing to music only we could hear.

He sighed. "I want to be freed from Chaos along with all the guilt from my sins." He then moved his lips down beside my ear and whispered. "Because…then just maybe I could be worthy of your time."

I slid my hands down the arms that were around me until I found his hands. I spun around and took his hands in mine. "Don't talk like that."

"It's only the truth." He said looking down at me. His gorgeous red orbs searched my face as if the answer to his problems was written on it somewhere. I smiled sadly up at him before letting go of his hands.

"Believe whatever you want Vincent, but the truth is I love you and I'm probably gonna feel that way for a while so you might as well get used to it." And by a while I meant forever. I've decided that I do indeed plan on taking some of Vincent's blood and becoming immortal. I didn't know when or how I would do it, but I was definitely going to do it.

∞∞∞

"Good morning birthday boy!!" I cheered as I jumped on the bed he was sleeping in. He had his face buried into the pillow in a way that I couldn't even see how he could breathe. His raven locks were spread out all over the place. He wore his normal black pajama pants and black T-shirt. I giggled and poked the skin that was exposed from his T-shirt being slightly pushed up from his rough sleeping habits. I've been kicked, slapped and rolled over on countless times within the time Vincent and I had been sharing a bed. But there were some nights where he would sleep so still it was hard to tell if he was even alive.

"Vincent!" I yelled as slowly walked onto his back. I gave him a soft kick in the rear and was quickly brought down to the bed by two strong arms. Vincent glared at me but I could tell he wasn't really angry. I giggled and strained my neck as I lifted my head to kiss his lips. "But seriously you need to get up we've got somewhere to go."

"I don't want to." He said tightening the grip on my arms that he held high above my head. This position would look so wrong if anyone were to walk in.

"You don't have a choice. Get dressed." I said wriggling out of his grip and attempted to get myself ready.

After arguing with him for nearly two hours he was finally dressed in a red buttoned down, short sleeved shirt and black pants. I let him get away with wearing his creepy looking gauntlet and those hideous gold boots. But hey, it was his birthday after all he should get to wear whatever he wanted to. The plan for the evening was to go to that same Asian restaurant where I had spent my birthday party at. Rena insisted on throwing Vincent a small birthday party. We had the whole smoking section reserved for the night. Not because we were expected a huge crowd, but so that we would have a huge space to ourselves so that Vincent didn't have to feel like he was out in public. The only people invited were Reno, Cloud, Lunaz and of course Rena and I.

Watching Vincent try to get his long legs into my tiny little red car was nothing short of hilarious. He shot a glare at me just milliseconds after I let a laugh slip. Once he was finally in and shut the door I drove off to the restaurant. Vincent pointed out every flaw in my driving as if his was perfect.

"Happy Birthday!" Rena yelled as soon as we walked up to the door. She and Reno were standing outside of the place waiting for us. "Maya, can I hug your boyfriend?"

I looked up at him and nodded. Vincent shot me a look of betrayal before letting Rena tackle him with a quick hug. His only response to this was jerking his head back slightly.

"Happy Birthday Vincent!" Lunaz said as we walked into the smoking section. Reno had already lit a cigarette before he even made it into the section. Vincent showed her a slight smile and nodded at Cloud before taking a seat across from him letting me sit across from Lunaz. Rena sat on the other side of me while Reno across from her. Rena kept nudging me and giving me the eye. I'm not the seductress she was so I really don't know where she was coming off thinking I was honestly going to be able to pull this off. The dinner went better than I could even imagine except for the fact Vincent wasn't really treating me like his girlfriend, but more like an acquaintance. He paid more attention to the others than he did me, but I saw that as a good thing. He was finally learning to get along with other people. They all only got him a card because honestly what do you buy Vincent Valentine for his birthday. Reno got him one with strippers all over it and when you opened the card a stripper popped out of the cake in the middle. The only response he got out of Vincent was a wide-eyed look followed by a glare after Reno invited him to a strip club later on. Rena quickly cut in and let Reno know that Vincent's night was going to be busy enough. Vincent shot me a look that demanded to know what was going on, but I quickly turned away partially to hide my blush and also because I could never face him with those accusing eyes of his. It was hard to even tell the truth to eyes like those let alone lie.

∞∞∞

We got back to the apartments at around nine o'clock that night. Vincent tossed his stack of cards on my end table. He seemed pretty content. I hope this party showed him that he does have people that care about him and want to be his friend and a girlfriend that loves him. A sudden rush of nervousness came over me as I realized what I had to do next. Vincent seemed to notice this.

"What's wrong?" he asked he smiled a little more distinctly than normal. I shook my head shaking away the nervousness.

"Uh…nothing…I think…I'm ready to give you your present." I said. Things got a little easier for me once as soon as Vincent put his hands on me. Even if it was only a slight touch to my cheek by the back of his hand.

"You don't have to give me anything." He said softly. I grabbed his hand and lead him to my bedroom.

"Sit down." I said going to the closet and taking out my first item. After struggling with all of his hair I got the blind fold on him properly.

"Amaya, I don't like surprises." He said, but he didn't make any moves to take off the blindfold or anything.

"You'll like this one." I said smiling. I slowly unbuttoned his shirt and pushed it back off of his shoulders. He wasn't wearing any kind of under shirt or wife beater which made my job much easier as I slipped the shirt off of him. Maybe Rena was right! This could be fun! I quickly changed into my suggestive lingerie and grabbed the handcuffs. Vincent remained totally silent sitting on the bed. I took his wrists behind his back and placed the handcuffs on him.

"I don't like this game already." He said before yawning. I opened the bottle of chocolate syrup and put a little bit on my finger. I rubbed it lightly on Vincent's lips and he licked it all off before I could even kiss him.

"Hey! You weren't supposed to eat it yet!" I laughed and put the chocolate on my lips this time. I pressed them against his and he kissed me sloppily. I could tell his main focus was licking up all the chocolate. I giggled as I broke the kiss and wiped my face with the back of my hand.

"Couldn't we have done this without the handcuffs?" he asked nonchalantly. He flinched as he felt the cool whipped cream touch his skin as I squirted some on the tender spot of his neck. I licked it off which resulted in a slight trembling from the normally stoic man in front of me. "Please don't torture me like this." He whispered. I kissed his lips again and climbed onto his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and slowly grinded my hips against his. His whole body stiffened; a certain part slightly stiffer than the others. He tried to stand but I dug my nails into his arms and pushed him down so he was now lying on his back. I reached down and undid his belt, whipping it off quickly and throwing it aside. I gently removed his pants and put a hand on his black boxers.

"Amaya…please stop…I can't…" He groaned slightly upon feeling my mouth on him. A tremor shook his body as I continued. He took a deep breath and seemed to just given to letting me have my way with him. Minutes later he groaned again I noticed something glowing red behind him. Suddenly his arms came back out from behind him as he broke the handcuffs. He quickly ripped off the blind fold and snatched me up in his grip. He laid me down on the bed, slipped my underwear off in one swift movement and without a bit of warning, almost painfully rammed himself inside me. It was like he had no control over his body what so ever as he thrusts harder and harder bashing my headboard against the wall each time. It was a great thing we didn't have neighbors.

It took him quite a while to finally come, and when he did he promptly removed himself letting his seed drip on my sheets. Guess I'd be doing laundry tomorrow. He collapsed on top of me breathing heavily and sweating slightly. I didn't have to do a bit of work, and I had come long before he did so I was no longer tired out and just about ready for a round two.

Suddenly as if reality had just set in his mind, Vincent shot off me and grabbed my comforter to cover him.

"Vincent…"

"What did I just do?" he asked as if to himself. He wasn't looking at me and didn't even acknowledge me as I called his name again. He scrambled around my room collecting his clothes and getting dressed.

"Vincent don't you dare walk out!! Not after…that…"

"That…wasn't…me…was it? I…" he looked completely flustered and even slightly red in the face. I expected the morning after to be a little awkward not the _minute_ after. He finally regained some composure. "I shouldn't have…I had no right to…"

"I wanted it as much as you needed it Vincent trust me."

"No…" he said softly while exiting my bedroom.

Why do I listen to Rena? This was the second time I had listened to her and messed things up with Vincent. I sighed and buried my face into a pillow. I then thought about what just happened. I had slept with Vincent Valentine. I had honestly planned on just giving him that little treat, but he grabbed me and took the whole meal! I wondered just how long it had been since he had had sex. He even remembered to pull out! Hmmm…. I couldn't help but smile a little to myself.


	25. Mr Perfect

**Apartment 102**

**Mr. Perfect**

As usual, it promptly took Vincent a full week to face me again after our sexual encounter. Once again, it was _him_ that took it all the way. However the week of silence had past now and I had just received a text that said to meet him outside in five minutes. It was Thursday night at around midnight so I was already dressed in my pajamas. I took my hair down and ran my fingers through it a few times to get the tangles out. As soon as I heard a door shutting from outside, I quickly opened my door.

Vincent was already heading to the couches. Nowadays the only times we sat on these couches out here were to have _talks_. I sat across from him on the other couch and waited for him to speak.

"So…what did you want to talk about?" I asked after I was tired of waiting for him to say something. He glanced at me for a second then sighed loudly.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly. "For…taking you that way…without even asking if that's what you…had intended to do…or…" He looked down at his pale hands that were in his lap. Both of them were uncovered for once. He wasn't even wearing his headband, but this only allowed for more hair to cover his face so it wasn't like I was seeing any more of him. "You were just so…and it's been so long since I've…that I lost control. I hope you can forgive me."

I wanted so badly to laugh at how Vincent avoided saying all the intimate words. I did let an eye roll slip, but saved the laughter. That would probably piss him off and send him back into his dark apartment where he had probably spent the week brooding.

"It's ok Vincent. You're my boyfriend right? Although religiously it _would_ be better to wait until marriage, but I've already ruined that for myself by sleeping with Trace so it's not like you took my innocence or anything." I said hoping it would make him feel less guilty even though he really had nothing to be guilty about. Since I've known Vincent I've realized it doesn't take much to send this man on a 100 mile guilt trip.

"That's…another thing I wanted to speak with you about. I don't know if I can handle that anymore. Especially if you are leaving in ten and a half months." Wow did he have a countdown going on?

I stood from the couch I was seated on and sat beside Vincent. I looped my arm around his and grabbed his hand. "I'll come back and visit." He smiled slightly.

"What if I let myself fall in love with you and you find someone else in California?" He leaned against me and rested his head against mine. How did he know I was going to California? I didn't tell him that.

"How did you know that's where I was going?" I asked him.

"Rena called me yesterday. I talked with her for quite awhile about you. Since you're telling her everything I thought I may as well." He slipped his hand out of mine and wrapped his arm around me.

"What?!" I pulled away from him.

He chuckled. "She told me pretty much everything you've ever said about me. How you were so scared of me at first because she told you I had glowing red eyes and a claw for a hand…" He said slowly while pulling me back closer to him.

"I'm killing her." I tried to leave the couch but Vincent grabbed me by the waist and pulled me down into his lap.

"You didn't answer my question."

"Oh yeah…about finding another man in California? That's not going to happen. You're my Mr. Perfect. Minus the lack of communication sometimes. And minus the guilt trips. I mean I appreciated you actually caring about whether or not you crossed the line with me, but damn dude you can't keep running off for a week after every little mistake you make. And it wasn't even a mistake, I was enjoying that. Though you were a little rough." I giggled. He tried to hide his blush behind his hair but it wasn't working. I could see it even in the dim moonlight. I kissed his rosy cheek and nuzzled into his neck.

"Are you going to fall in love with me?" I whispered to him.

"We'll see." He whispered back before kissing my cheek. "I'm sorry again for taking advantage of you."

"It's ok. I don't mind be taken advantage of by you." I smiled at him. "Only you have that privilege."

"That's how it better be. If I find out anyone else has, I will put three bullets straight through their imbecilic brains." He showed a rare grin before pressing his lips against mine in a brief, but tender kiss.

∞∞∞

Once again, after a little bit of communication things were back to normal. Except for the fact I was no longer speaking to Rena. I couldn't believe all the stuff she told Vincent. And when I asked her about it she had the nerve to lie to me and tell me she hadn't said anything to him. I _know_ Vincent wouldn't lie to me.

Also I had been getting weird phone calls from a strange number. Every time I would answer I would here a few breaths then the person would hang up. It wasn't even that creepy because they would always call in broad daylight. I didn't even want to tell Vincent about it because he would probably go crazy and shoot every person in the city.

Tonight after I got home from class Vincent was sitting in the kitchen shirtless eating a cake I had made a few days ago.

"Hey sexy." I said receiving an eye roll from him. "You shouldn't sit around shirtless if you don't want me to comment." I walked around him and planted a kiss right on his special spot on his neck. Vincent stood up and pushed his plate away from him almost in a way that made me think he was pissed off. But as soon as he started kissing me I found out otherwise.

"You have my permission this time to…" I couldn't even finish my sentence without letting out a moan as his hands travelled down my back and grabbed my hips, pulling them against his so I could feel just how _into the moment_ he was. Yume whined and put her face into her pink pillow. I guess she didn't enjoy watching mommy and daddy nearly gettin in on right there in the kitchen a few feet away from her cage. The next disturbance was my phone ringing. I didn't want to ignore it because it could be important.

"Go ahead…we should stop now before I lose control again." Vincent sighed as he pulled himself away from me almost regretfully. I caught a glimpse at his pants and saw he had pitched quite the large tent there.

"Hello?" I answered.

"If I can't have you, no one will. Especially not that monster." With that the person who I could now identify as Trace, hung up.

"What's wrong?" Vincent asked walking into the living room with a hand over his crotch.

"That was Trace. He just said that if he can't have me, no one will. Especially not you." I said softly. For some reason I had a really bad feeling. I mean I shouldn't even be worried, Vincent can't die. What could Trace do? He wouldn't hurt me would he?

"Where is he? I'll put an end to him." Vincent said nonchalantly. "If he lays a hand on you I will make sure his death is more painful." He scooped me up in his arms.

I laughed. "You are a cold blooded murderer."

"But you love me." He said looking down at me with a raised eyebrow as if asking me to confirm.

I quickly nodded. "That's right, I do."

∞∞∞

Before I knew it a couple of weeks passed by and it was now Halloween. I bought a naughty little police officer costume to wear to Rena's Halloween party. Vincent surprisingly agreed to go with me dressed as none other than a vampire. We even bought him some fake fangs, and a bottle of fake blood. He wore a black suit with a red tie and his red cloak. He even wore his claw.

"Where did you even get such a thing?" I asked him as I walked into the living room where he sat waiting for me to get ready. I put my police hat on and hooked a pair of handcuffs to my belt.

"I stole it from Hojo's lab because it looked cool." He said seriously while looking down at it and spreading out the golden fingers.

I laughed out loud and put on my high heeled black shoes. I stood, wobbling a little then took a lap around the apartment to get used to them. Vincent just shook his head at me.

"Can we leave already? I want to get this night over with. The only reason I am going with you is to make sure you aren't drinking. You are not twenty-one, young lady." He said pointing his finger at me. I rolled my eyes. Oh great… Vincent's going to act like my baby sitter all night.

We left my apartment at around eight and arrived at Rena's place at eight thirty. I'm surprised her parent's haven't found out about any of these wild parties she had been hosting while they were out. Tons of people were already there so Vincent had to park like a forth of a mile away from the place.

As we walked up the long gravel road other people were doing the same. A few guys let out some pretty obscene cat calls and Vincent instantly took my hand in his and pulled me closer to him. "That's another reason why I came."

"Well Vincent, I want you to know that even if you weren't here I would have totally ignored them. I love you and would never ever do anything that I even _think _would hurt you." I said tightening the grip on his hand. He took his hand out of mine and threw his arm around me as we continued to walk.

Once we finally arrived at the place I thought Vincent was going to faint. There were hundreds of people there. We could hardly walk through the front door. Some of the costumes were very scary actually. People kept coming out of dark corners and jumping out as if this were some kind of haunted house. If Vincent had brought his gun he'd probably have already shot fifty people. Some slutty chick dressed as a nurse had the nerve to touch him and ask if he wanted a drink. Vincent declined not so politely and told her to get lost.

"Good boy." I said patting his shoulder. He smirked at me before bending down putting his lips near my ear so I could hear him over the loud music.

"You're the only female in here that tempts me even in the slightest manner." He smiled down at me and lead me through the crowd of people until we were outside by the pool. It was freezing outside so there was not a soul in the pool, but at least it was less crowded out here.

"Amaya! Hey girl! Oh Vincent you came!" Rena said. In these past weeks we had gotten over our little conflict about her telling Vincent everything I said. She then reached behind her on a table and handed me a drink. Vincent quickly intervened and took the drink himself.

"She's not drinking tonight." He said as she reached for another glass.

"Why? Amaya you're not going to let him boss you around are you? How are we supposed to have a good time!?" she said patting my shoulder then glaring up at him.

Vincent kept his eyes on me. I looked down. "I'm staying sober tonight, Rena…"

"Girl, he's already got you whipped." She said taking her drink and moving on to the next group of people standing near us.

"Good girl." Vincent muttered to me. He sat the glass he took from me back on the tray and quickly claimed a stretched out lawn chair by the pool. He pulled me into his lap and we sat there watching everyone else have a good time. But honestly, I couldn't complain. I had what I wanted right here.

On the way back to the car I grabbed Vincent's arms and put him in handcuffs again. "Sir, you're under arrest."

Vincent's hands glowed red for a second then he jerked them apart breaking the metal handcuffs for the second time. Wow so he really could use Chaos's power anytime he wanted.

"Catch me if you can." He said breaking out into a run towards his black car that was nearly hidden by the shadows of the trees near it. I couldn't run after him in my heels so he got away. He even had enough time to get into the car, start it, and drive a few feet towards me.

∞∞∞

The next day at college was just as I expected. I listened to Rena as she lectured me about letting a guy take control of me. Trace had done the same thing at first and we nearly ended our friendship.

"Rena…I just want Vincent to trust me, ok?"

"How so?"

"Never mind, I can't even tell you because you'll just run back and tell him." I stood up and carried my lunch tray to the trash can and headed off to the next class early. I sat in the empty classroom for a good ten minutes before students started showing up. In those ten minutes my phone rang.

"Hello?" I answered

"You've got three days to…"

"Trace if you come near me ever again I'll make sure Vincent kills you!" I hung up quickly before he could say anything else. The students that walked in all gave me the weirdest looks, but I didn't care. There was only one thing that I cared about right now and that was Vincent. My Mr. Perfect.


	26. The Third Day

**Apartment 102**

**The Third Day**

Vincent laughed when I told him about the phone call from Trace. Well maybe not laughed but was visibly amused. I know he can't die and all and this whole Trace challenging him thing was probably a huge joke to him, but what about me? What if Trace comes after me?

Today was the third day after I got the phone call. I didn't have class so I stayed home all day refusing to leave the house. Believe it or not even Vincent was trying to get me out of the house to go somewhere. He had asked me nearly six times if I wanted to go out somewhere for dinner. He was now sitting on the end of my bed while I lay curled up under the covers. It was only seven o'clock, and I wasn't really tired but literally worried sick and didn't feel like moving. I stared at the back of Vincent as he sat there quietly. He turned his head to the side so I could see the profile of his face.

"Don't you trust me?" his low voice broke the eerie silence that once filled the room.

"I don't trust Trace. What if he targets me?" I asked rather loudly.

Vincent turned his body so he could face me directly. "I would _never_ let that happen."

I smiled slightly and sat up. I scooted to the end of the bed beside Vincent and leaned against him. He put his arm around me and whispered to me. "For someone like me, friends are hard to come by. I'm not going to let this good one go."

I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face after hearing his sweet words. He kissed my forehead then stood. "I don't get dressed like this very often so let's go out to dinner."

He was dressed pretty nice. He had on a dark red buttoned down shirt with a black tie and black pants. His hair was tied back, and he wore his dark red bandana. He was even wearing cologne. I chose to wear a dark red blouse and a pair of nice black capris with a silver belt dangling from them. I took twenty minutes doing my hair and makeup. Vincent, like the gentleman he was took my hand and lead me out of the apartment, making sure my door was locked and all.

"Where are we going?" I asked him. He smiled slightly but didn't answer me. He opened the door of his car for me before getting in himself. As soon as he started his car I turned the music on. A love song that I knew came on and I serenaded Vincent all the way to the restaurant. Once we got there I realized it was the same place we went to on our very first date. I grinned to myself thinking of how excited I was just to be in Vincent Valentine's car!

Once inside the restaurant, I realized Vincent had already made reservations which probably lead to why he was so persistent in getting me out of the house. The hostess led us over to our little table for two. I didn't even need to look at the menu to decide what I wanted. I was definitely having those delicious chicken strips that I had last time I was here. Vincent evidently didn't need to look either as he didn't open his menu, but was already focused on me.

"You look very pretty tonight." He said with a small smirk on his face. "I suppose it was worth the wait."

I knew he was referring to the long time he had to wait for me to get ready. I glared at him playfully. "So are you trying to say I wasn't pretty before?"

Vincent acted like he was thinking about it. I dipped my fingers in my glass of water and flicked it in his face. He threw his napkin at me. A few heads turned in our direction so I decided to end the play fight with a glare. He smirked back at me.

"That's ok. Chaos looks better than you." I teased.

Vincent's mouth dropped open and he pretended to be hurt.

"I'm just kidding, you nerd." I smiled at him but he turned his face away from me. "Stop." I laughed as I reached across the table to give his hand a slap. He pulled his hand away from the table and crossed his arms. "Vincent."

He looked all around the room avoiding looking at me. He had a small smirk on his lips but he quickly tried to hide it with a deep frown.

"Come on, you know I love you more than anything in the world." I smiled at his frowning face. His eyes finally landed on mine but he still wouldn't say anything. Our food came shortly after that and we both were absorbed in the food.

My phone rang causing us both to freeze.

"Give it here." Vincent held out his hand. I looked down to see the strange number Trace had been calling from. I handed it to him and he flipped it open.

"Hello?"

I couldn't hear what Trace was saying but whatever he said caused Vincent so smirk.

"By all means do try. Take whatever measures you see necessary."

Vincent looked at me while he listened to Trace talk.

"Spill my blood Trace, torture me, I love it." He winked at me.

"Ok then so should I be expecting you at the apartments later? I'm out to dinner with the lovely Amaya. She is looking as beautiful as ever." I could tell Vincent was trying to make Trace mad. It didn't take much so I imagined he was probably pretty livid by now. Vincent took a sip of his wine.

"Ok, I shall see you there." He hung up the phone and handed it to me. "He's going to kill me tonight."

"He better not." I smiled at him and he chuckled.

"This is going to be quite amusing." He said while getting back to his steak.

∞∞∞

My heart was pounding as we pulled up to the apartments. I didn't want to get caught in the middle of this fight, literally. Figuratively I knew I was in the middle of this fight.

Vincent parked the car and got out. He was as calm as ever. He opened my door for me and walked me towards the apartment building. Suddenly a gunshot rang through the air. I screamed and ducked down as quickly as I could. Vincent brought a hand to his back and looked down at his blood covered fingers. He glared into the distance looking for the source of the gun. Another shot rang out and Vincent fell to the ground. A pool of blood started to surround him.

"Vincent!" I ran to him and squatted on the ground beside him.

"Go inside." He managed to force out. Blood was gushing out his neck. "I'm ok." As soon as I saw the red glow form around his body I stood back. Vincent transformed into Chaos and quickly shot into the air at lightning speed.

I felt a hand wrap around my mouth and I was pulled into a chest. "If he can't die, I'll let this monster kill us both tonight." Trace whispered to my ear before laughing loudly. I tried to pull away from him but couldn't.

Chaos flew down and stopped right in front of us. He walked closer to us very slowly glaring at the both of us with his golden eyes. "Let her go." The demonic voice said. Vincent was in control!

Trace laughed and pulled the gun out again. Vincent may be in control now but if Trace angered Chaos by shooting him who knows what will happen. As soon as Trace fired I forced the gun in a different direction.

"Stop!" I screamed.

Chaos roared back and flew into us knocking Trace and I down to the concrete. It hurt, and I was sure I was missing half of the skin on my elbow, but nevertheless it knocked me from Trace's grip allowing Chaos to swoop me up into his arms and fly high above Trace with me. Trace fired into the air but Chaos was able to dodge the shots. I heard Chaos growl and he took one arm from around my waist. A small red ball with tiny red lightning bolts inside it formed in the palm of his hand. The ball got bigger and bigger and finally Chaos threw the ball down in Trace's direction. It hit the ground with such a great force it sent small cracks throughout the whole parking lot. Trace lay seemingly lifeless on the ground next to a hole Chaos' attack left in the ground. Chaos landed nearby and gently let me down. In a matter of seconds he was Vincent again. Vincent's bullet wounds were completely healed and he seemed completely unharmed.

He noticed the blood trickling down my arm from my skinned elbow. "Come on, let's go." He said while gently taking my hand in his. We hurried back to my apartment and Vincent instantly began doctoring away at my elbow. He cleaned it up with peroxide and bandaged it up properly. I knew it would be terribly sore tomorrow as I could barely bend it back and forth right now.

"I'm sorry." Vincent said rubbing my elbow lightly. I was sitting on the couch while he was crouched down in front of me on the floor.

I shook my head. "It wasn't your fault."

He stood and took off his tie and his blood stained shirt. The blood had even soaked through to his white wife beater. He took that off as well and sat his blood clothes in a pile on the few squares of tiled floor that surrounded the area by the front door. He returned and sat right next to me on the couch. It instantly started getting hot in the room. As soon as I was about to grab his face and kiss him my phone rang and I quickly answered it expecting it to be Rena telling me I would have to come out with her tomorrow.

"Hello?" I answered.

"…I hope you're happy with that monster.,," a weak voice said before hanging up. Was that Trace?

Vincent grabbed his gun and went to the door. "No! Vincent…I think Trace is done fighting." I said. He turned to me.

"Can't I just finish him off?" his voice was emotionless. As if it meant nothing to him to take Trace's life.

"Let him live. Deep down Trace does have a good heart. That's why I stayed with him for so long. I guess he was a little more into me than I thought."

"Or into his reputation. What's kind of man gets his woman stolen by a monster?" Vincent put his gun down and returned to the recliner.

"Stop referring to yourself as a monster." I said very sternly staring him right in the eyes. He looked down at his hands.

"That's what I am, Amaya. I don't know how many times I need to say that to you. I don't know why you want to be with me. I just can't understand…" He looked up at me with a strange emotion in his eyes. It was a sad look yet very far from tears.

I didn't really know how to respond to him then. I only smiled at him and added. "You don't need to understand anything. The fact is I love you and I want to be with you and nothing you say or do is going to prevent that."

He stared at me for the longest time. His dark eyes that used to be so vacant were now filled with a new emotion. Though I knew he would not admit it at this moment. I knew he was falling in love with me. If he was not already. The only other obstacle standing in our way right now was my decision to move to California. Even though that was many months away, the thought of leaving Vincent here alone was already making me feel guilty.


	27. Love Through the Holidays

**Apartment 102**

**Love ****through the ****Holidays**

About a month and a half had passed and Christmas was near again. I had made it through midterm and was fully enjoying my Christmas vacation. Today I was up early, if you can call nine o'clock an early hour. Most days I had slept in til noon. Vincent was acting weird again. He hadn't even been staying in my apartment for the past four days. The last thing he said to me was that he _needed some space_. He just had to pull this before Christmas didn't he. But I wasn't about to let him ruin my Christmas spirit. I blasted my Christmas music all through the house while Rena, Lunaz and I decorated the place. My Christmas tree was so huge it nearly took up my whole living room. I decorated it with silver and red ornaments and garland. There was mistletoe handing from the doorway to the kitchen that I couldn't wait to get Vincent under, if he would even come over here. I really wanted to call him and ask what the hell his problem was but I was trying to be understanding. He was a man who once loved his solitude and I sort of came in and swept that all away.

In the middle of my own little brooding session I heard Vincent's assigned ringer from my phone. I jumped up and answered it. It was only a text that read. "Having fun without me?" Right after I read that I heard someone knocking. Lunaz quickly turned down my stereo that had ironically starting playing the song "All I want for Christmas is you" by Mariah Carey.

"Vincent!" I ran into his arms and he welcomed me with a warm embrace.

"What's going on over here?" he asked walking in my living room and looking around at all the decorations. "Is all this necessary?" he looked at my oversized Christmas tree. There wasn't even room for a star because the tip of it was already mashed into the ceiling.

"Way to come in and ruin the Christmas spirit!" Rena yelled turning up the music again and giving me a wink. I took Vincent's hands and started dancing and singing along.

"I don't want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need." I sang causing him to smile a little. This only provoked me to keep going. "I don't care about the presents underneath the Christmas tree." Vincent refused to dance with me, but let me hold his hands and swing his arms around.

"I just want you for my own, more than you will ever know. Make my wish come true. All I want for Christmas is you. Ooooo baby!" I probably didn't have the best singing voice but it made Vincent happy. He was fully grinning now and even laughing softly. I laughed with him then let go of his hands.

"You guys are so cute." Rena said smiling at us. Vincent scooped me up into his arms and rested his chin on my head. I assumed he was looking over me at Rena as he said. "We know."

I squeezed him then broke away. "So why haven't you come to see me?"

Vincent shrugged. "I just needed some time to think. That's hard to do with you around." That comment made Rena and Lunaz laugh. He didn't even glance at either of them, but was staring down at me. He pulled me into the kitchen.

"When are they leaving?" he whispered before kissing my cheek and down my neck. Well at least it seemed he missed me.

"I don't know." I said aloud. "Wanna make Christmas cookies?! I usually do that with my family, but I don't even think I'm going to go home for Christmas this year." I looked down at the floor.

"Yes I'd love to make cookies. Need you ask? But why aren't you going to see your family?"

"I want to spend Christmas with you." I whined. "My mom's still being a bitch and she's just going to ruin Christmas if I try to bring you down there. And my aunt will be there and I'm not sure if I want to face her yet. It's going to make going away seem too real for me right now."

"Won't she be expecting to see you then? Since you are moving in with her…" Vincent lowered his head so that I could not see his face well.

"Yes…but…" I didn't know what to say. I wanted to break down and cry seeing how this was affecting him. "About those cookies…Rena! Lunaz!" The mood definitely needed a bit of light.

My two friends came obediently running into the kitchen.

"What's up? What's wrong with him?" Rena asked bluntly. Vincent still stood with his head lowered and shoulders slumped. Vincent quickly looked up and shook his head.

"Nothing." He spoke softly. "Are we making cookies, Amaya? If not I should go now and let you spend the evening with your friends."

"Actually Lunaz and I were thinking about leaving ourselves so that you two love birds spend the evening together." Rena said winking at me. I didn't know what this symbol meant but if she was insisting the whole seduction game again I was not up for it and Vincent didn't seem to be either.

I had my girls run to the store for me first to get some red and green sprinkles and icing for our cookies. I already had a set of cookie cutters so once they returned with the decorations we were set.

"Four cups of sugar! That's not what the recipe says!" I snatched the book away from Vincent.

"The sweeter the better." He said snatching the book back to himself and proceeding to add the four cups. I barely had enough sugar to make four cups. Once we had the dough made we took the cutters and began to make little santas, reefs, and ornament shaped cookies. Vincent stood behind me and placed his hand over mine as we cut the cookies together. I turned my head just in time to receive a peck on my lips from him.

"No cookie could be sweeter than this." He whispered as he kissed me again. I giggled.

"You're making me mess up." I had already started applying the icing to a reef cookie. He smirked and place his hand on mine forcing me to mess up further and squirt green icing on the counter top. "Vincent." I tried to make a stern face but he wiped it right off with another kiss. While kissing Vincent I began to think was a job really worth losing this?

∞∞

I did in fact spend my Christmas with the love of my life. He bought me a pair of diamond earrings and a necklace to go with them. He also gave me a hundred dollar gift card to my favorite store. This was a lot easier than him trying to buy clothes for me. I shuddered at the thought of what he'd bring home and I would have to wear it because I wouldn't want to make him feel bad. I bought him tons of sweets and a new black sweater.

It was two days after Christmas now and Vincent was back staying in his own apartment. I was home alone now watching some weird movie. As soon as I heard someone at the door I jumped up and ran to it.

"Vi…Oh…hi Aunt Meg." I smiled at her and opened my door further.

"Were you expecting someone else?" she laughed softly.

"Yeah. My neighbor should be coming over to see me." I sat down on the couch and pushed my stuff aside so that she would have a place to sit.

"Why didn't you come home for Christmas? Your mom really missed you. She thinks you hate her now because she doesn't approve of your new friend." My aunt sat upright and looked very proper in her business suit.

"Yeah…my friends and I spent Christmas with our boyfriends." I looked down at my hands. I wanted to ask her if there was any way I could put this internship off for another year or so.

"Yes well, I'm very excited about you working for the company. I've told everyone in the company about you and they can't wait to meet you. Since I can't have children of my own I always brag to my coworkers about my intelligent little niece." She smiled at me and gave me a pat on the shoulder. I smiled weakly. Great…

"You are going to love working for our company. The benefits are great, you'll get to travel, and if you work hard the promotions are great. We've even been sending our bilingual employees to Japan once a year." I wanted to stop her but she continued to go on and on and on about my dream job. This is what I had always worked for. When I lost motivation to study I would think about this job and how badly I wanted it. Vincent would understand, right? It's not like I would never see him again. In the middle of all Aunt Megumi's rambling I heard her mention we get 30 sick days a year not including the holidays. I would take twenty of those and spend them all with him. Or I could split it up into a week at a time and see him more often.

∞∞∞

It was now New Year's Eve day and I was busy primping for the big New Year's party I would be going to later. I nearly poked myself in the eye with my mascara brush as I heard loud knocking at my door. I ran down the hall and answered it. Vincent stood there looking irritated.

"What?" I asked him as he stepped inside my apartment and closed the door.

"I've been knocking for the past five minutes." He said frowning at me. "And where are we going tonight?"

"We?" I asked him. He was dressed nicely in the black sweater I bought him along with some black jeans. He had a black bandana on and his hair was down.

"Wherever you're going, I'm going with you. I will not stay home worrying about where you are and what you're doing. It's New Year's Eve and there are crazy people out." He said sitting down on my couch and flipping on my TV.

I rolled my eyes and continued to get ready. At around eight o'clock that night we left and went to Rena's where she was having a pre party to the bigger one we were going to later at a club downtown. How Vincent was going to deal with a crowded club, I had no idea, but I asked him plenty of times to stay home. Though Rena's place was pretty crowded as well.

"Psst!" I felt a hand wrap around my wrist and drag me off in a random direction. I was pulled into a closet with Rena.

"What?!" I asked her.

"I've got a plan. We are going to get Vincent drunk so that you can have some fun." She reached down and grabbed a glass. "My friend made this for me, it tastes _just_ like strawberry lemonade, but it's like the strongest liquor ever! Get him to at least drink two glasses of this and he'll be done. Then you can drop his ass off at your apartment and we can go get our groove on at the club!" She was whispering but it was still pretty loud.

"Rena…"

"No! Don't Rena me, girl you need this! It's New Year's!!!" she whispered loudly. She put the glass in my hand and pushed me out of the closet. It took a while to find Vincent again, but I spotted him outside by the pool again where there were less people.

"What is that?" He asked quickly taking the drink out of my hand and sniffing it. He took a sip then handed it back to me. "I thought it was alcohol."

"No, it's just strawberry lemonade. I got it for you." I handed it to him. He kissed my lips and took the glass from me again. We stood watching guys dive off the diving board naked into the ice cold water. After about ten minutes I noticed Vincent's cup was empty.

"Do you want more? Because I was going to get a glass for myself." I said taking his empty glass from him. He smiled at me and nodded. I could tell he was already a bit tipsy by the way he was giving me the seductive smile in public. He would rarely do this in private.

I went back to Rena and got Vincent another glass and after he downed that one I realized she was right.

"Vincent?"

Vincent was taking off his sweater, having a horrible time getting it over his head. I helped him with it and sat him down on the bench outside.

"You ok?"

"It's so hot…" he took his bandana off and threw it aside. I picked it up for him and held it with his sweater. He started trying to unzip his jeans but I quickly stopped him.

"You can't do that here." I said, but he quickly pushed my hands away. "Vincent."

"It's hot!" he whined. I laughed upon hearing him whine for the very first time ever. It was completely adorable. "Amaya, it's hot… It's hot, Amaya."

"I get it. I understand. But didn't you tell me you couldn't feel temperature?" I asked holding his hands in my own to keep him from taking off his pants. Rena suddenly appeared.

"Take him home. We are leaving in an hour for the club." She said pointing at her watch. I looked down at Vincent who looked completely miserable and was actually sweating. I nodded. It's not like I would actually have to worry about him passing out and dying because he couldn't die, but I didn't want to just leave him at home. I nodded at Rena only to get her off my back.

"Come on, let's go home." I said standing up. Vincent followed nearly stumbling as he tried to stand.

"Amaya…" He whined.

"What?" I asked him as we made our way through the crowd. I couldn't hear what he was saying because the music was so loud but as soon as we reach the front porch I asked Vincent again.

"What's wrong?"

Vincent leaned over the railing of the porch and threw up over the side. I had to turn my head and cover my ears so that I wouldn't vomit myself. When I opened my eyes I gasped as I saw Vincent about to fall over the railing. I grabbed him by the back of his pants and pulled him against me sending us falling backwards.

Vincent groaned and rolled off of me. "I want to go home."

"I know. We are going home." I stood up and helped him to his feet. I walked him to his car and put him in the passenger side. He instantly started adjusting the air conditioning before I even started the car.

"Why won't they work?"

"I haven't started the car yet, sweetie." I smiled at him and started the car. As soon as the cool air hit Vincent he relaxed against the seats and fell asleep. He slept the whole thirty minute drive back to the apartments.

"Vincent." I said shaking him. He instantly awoke which surprised me because sober, he was a heavy sleeper. I expected him to be triple that drunk.

I held his hand as we walked to the apartments. Vincent tripped on the stairs three times and completely fell down in the hallway. Once inside my apartment I got a call from Rena.

"Hello? Girl are you coming?" Rena asked.

"I think I should stay here with Vincent." I said.

"Oh come on girl!"

"Don't leave me, Amaya." Vincent murmured from the couch he threw himself on.

I hung up on Rena which I knew I would be paying for later and sat down with Vincent on the couch. He took off the wife beater that he had been wearing under his sweater and threw it on the floor. He then began to unzip his pants again. I let him do that but made him stay in his boxers.

"I know it's hot, Vincent, but you can't sit around naked."

Vincent grinned and reached for my pants. "Let's be naked together, then it's ok."

I blushed and slapped his hands. "No."

I had to literally sit in his lap and hold his hands with his arms around me to keep him from undressing himself. After an hour of this I heard his breathing start to become heavy and realized that he had fallen asleep. At about 11:57 I woke him up.

He squeezed me and buried his face into my neck. "Mm hmm?"

"It's almost the New Year." I said.

Vincent seemed to be a bit more sober than he was an hour ago. "Oh. Are we having a private countdown?"

I nodded. He kissed my lips and squeezed me harder. I squealed and giggled.

"You are laughing now, but tomorrow you are going to be in so much trouble." He said with a hint of an evil smirk on his face. "That wasn't just lemonade you gave me. I haven't been this drunk since my very early Turk days. That was years ago."

I smiled at him. "Well at least I didn't leave you here and go to the club like Rena planned for me to do."

Vincent gave a sideways nod. "That's true." He looked down at his watch and. "10, 9, 8, 7,"

"6,5, 4" I joined him. "3, 2, 1"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!" I shouted throwing my arms up in the air.

Vincent smiled. "Happy New Year, Amaya." He then frowned slightly. "Sorry, you couldn't spend it the way you wanted to. It's not my place to control you. I haven't even confessed how I feel about you. I have no right telling you what to do" My, wasn't Vincent an honest drunk.

"It's ok. There's no one I'd rather spend my New Years with than you." I kissed him again and climbed back into his lap. While he was being so honest I decided to ask him a question.

"Do you want me to take the job in California or stay here with you?"

"I want you to stay with me, Amaya. Just stay with me forever. Wait…I'm drunk don't listen to me…you need to go. Do what you have to do for you. Wait what am I saying…." He brought a hand to his forehead and looked as if he was trying to focus. "I only want for you to be happy."

I wasn't sure how to take that response, but I was sure it was more than what I would get out of him sober. It really came down to my decision anyway.


	28. The Breaking Point

**Apartment 102**

**The Breaking Point**

The next morning I woke up around nine o'clock. Vincent was still passed out. I wasn't looking forward to the moment he woke because I knew I was probably getting yelled at. But hey at least I got some laughs out of it. Vincent even slept funny when he was drunk. He snored and drooled so much I had a puddle on my face. He's lucky I love him so much.

I went into the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. Maybe if I cook him a really nice breakfast with loads of sweet stuff he won't yell at me as much. I put some cinnamon rolls in the oven and set the timer. I turned around to face a pair of bloodshot crimson eyes glaring into me.

I grinned. "Hi Vincent….uh hehe." I raised my eyebrows and continued to grin up at him while he glared down at me.

"Ok, ok I'm sorry!! It was all Rena!! It was her idea!! But hey I didn't even go through with it so you can't be mad right?" I gave him a pouty face. Man, how am I ever going to keep secrets from me if he's able to break me down so easily?

He sighed. "I guess your right…for the record if you had dropped me off here and went to the club I probably would have shot you." His glare faded and he showed me a Vincent smile. I wrapped my arms around his neck and gave him a rough smooch.

With the knowledge of possibly having to leave Vincent weighing on my mind, the time we still had together seemed to just fly by. It was now the first day of April. Vincent had been practically living with me for the past four months, not letting a second of my free time go to waste.

"I'm home!" I yelled into the small apartment. It was seven thirty at night and I had just come home from my computer class that ended at 6:30. "Vincent?" I put my bag down by the door and scanned the living room. I walked down the hall but stopped midway when I heard his low voice speaking to someone else.

"Yes…I understand that, but…" I heard him say. I took a few steps back to make sure he wouldn't see me but continued to listen.

"Ms Arai… If it's truly money you are worried about it's not an issue for me."

"I do not work. The money I have was granted to me as a result of a lawsuit. I worked for a secret organization years ago and was forced into a circumstance where I was later almost killed. Therefore I sued the organization and received a large sum of money."

I began to wonder if he had called her or had she called here. I knew one thing for sure, he'd be pissed if he caught me eavesdropping so I went into the bathroom and took a long bath. Hoping that by the time I got out he would be off the phone so I could walk into my own bedroom.

After my long bath, I tied my wet hair back and wrapped a pink towel around me before walking out of the bathroom. I peeked into my bedroom and saw Vincent sitting on my bed facing the window. I walked in there and went straight to my dresser.

"Your mom said to call her." He said.

I turned to him and saw that he was now facing me. His eyes travelled down my towel clad body then back to my eyes.

"Oh." I replied turning back to the dresser and grabbing some pajamas. I walked towards the door to go change in the bathroom. When I returned wearing my blue, cloud pajama pants and a white T-shirt, I saw Vincent gathering his things.

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

"I think its best I leave now." He said making his way to the door. I quickly ran past him and blocked the doorway.

"What did my mom say to you?" Vincent tried to push past me but I grabbed his shoulders and gave him the hardest shove I could muster. It didn't move him, but it did keep him from leaving. He didn't answer my question.

"Don't listen to her Vincent, she doesn't know anything! She'd say anything to make you leave me because she's so wrapped up in me having a great future. The only way I'll have a great future is if I spend the rest of eternity with you."

Vincent looked down at me. "You are nineteen years old. You don't know what you want. Have you even thought about what a future with me would be like? I can't raise children, I can't marry you because they will question me on my birth date, I can't travel anywhere because when Chaos realizes he's out of his element I can lose control of him, I can't do anything for you Amaya! I've made a horrible mistake in letting myself fall for you because one day you are going to realize that and you'll leave me. So just do it now while I still have a hold on my heart."

"Vincent I would never leave you!" I yelled. I tried to hug him but he pulled back. "Vincent please…"

"No…" he quickly zipped around me and was gone.

I stormed over to my phone and snatched it up. I punched my mom's number in fiercely and waited for her to answer.

"Hello?"

"What the hell did you say to Vincent!?" I yelled.

"Don't you speak to me that way." She said.

"Tell me what you said to him!" I demanded. Hot tears were running down my cheeks. I roughly wiped each one away.

"I only told him the truth. He does not deserve you. If a person like him wants to be in love he should find another person the same as him." I rolled my eyes at this.

"There's no one else like him! How could you even say that!? It's not his fault he is the way he is! A mad scientist did that to him."

"And it is not our fault either. I know you pity him, Amaya. You have always been a child with such a kind nature. You have done enough for that man and now it is time to let him be." My mom said in her calm voice.

I could no longer control my tears and they were now pouring down my cheeks. "Okaasan…I love him."

"You will find love again. By the way I called Megumi and told her that you will be taking the internship for sure. There is no backing out now unless you wish to shame your family and give your aunt a bad reputation. If she sets this up and you do no show up it will make her look bad."

"Forget it!! I'm not going!" I screamed into the phone.

"Ama…" I hung up on her and ran out of my room, out of my apartment and across the hall. I banged on Vincent's door for ten minutes straight. As soon as I thought he was not going to answer, the door slowly opened. I dropped to my knees in front of his open door.

My knuckles were bleeding for hitting his door so hard and my nose was so congested from all the crying I could no longer breathe out of it. "I'm not going." I whimpered in a shaky voice. I stared at his white socks in front of me.

Vincent sighed. "Amaya, that's not going to change what I said before."

"Then maybe this will." I stood up, jumped at him and grabbed his face. I kissed his lips gently at first then bit down hard drawing _blood_. Vincent tried to push me away, but all the adrenaline that I had worked up made me nearly stronger than him. I sucked hard at the bite in his lip taking in all the blood I could. The bite was pretty deep and knew I had taken at least a couple tablespoons of blood from him. Suddenly I felt very dizzy. My grip on Vincent loosened and everything went black.

"Amaya?" I heard my best friend's voice as I was slowly gaining my consciousness back. My eyes fluttered open to see my friend by my bedside staring down at me. I was in a hospital again. I looked around to see if there was anyone else in the room but there wasn't. Where was he? I glanced over at the clock and realized it was almost three in the morning.

"How are you feeling?" she asked reaching up and touching my head. "You still have a bit of a fever." I assumed I had taken Vincent's blood while it was contaminated with Chaos's toxins.

"Where's Vincent?" I asked in a weak voice. My whole body felt weak and icky. I assumed this is how Chaos made Vincent feel every other week or so.

"Girl you missed it. He put on quite a show earlier. They had to kick him out of the hospital."

My eyes widened. "What happened?"

"He called me first thing and was like come get Amaya and take her to the hospital. He left you lying on the couches in the hallway and that's where I picked you up. On the way out of the apartments I saw this huge creature with wings fly over us and it landed on the ground and transformed into Vincent! I fainted then and I guess Vincent put us both in his car and drove us here. _Then_ when we got here and the doctors took some tests on you they said that your blood type is unidentifiable and they wanted to run more tests. Vincent said no, but when they asked him what he was to you he said boyfriend and they said that he wasn't a close enough person to you to make any decisions like that. Vincent pushed past the doctor and like dove at you. He ripped the IV out of your arm and was going to just carry you out of the hospital!"

"Oh my God!" I covered my mouth and laughed softly. "Then what?"

"What do you think!? They called security and carried him out of the place. Lunaz and Cloud are with him at his place now." Her face suddenly fell. "They said on the way back to his apartment he broke down."

"Broke down?" I asked.

"Yeah, he was crying and stuff. I just talked to Lunaz again she says he's locked himself in his room and won't respond to anyone. I'm going to call them now and tell them you're awake. Maybe he'll respond to that."

I nodded and wiped away the few tears that had slipped down my cheeks.

"Luna! Yeah tell Vinvin his girl's awake." I couldn't help but laugh a little. Vinvin…haha! I would love to see the look on his face after hearing her call him that.

"Really!? Oh ok." Rena looked at me and gave me a thumbs up. She seemed to be waiting for something.

"Vincent? Oh…all right I'll let you talk to her." She handed the phone to me and I took it with an unsteady hand. I slowly placed it against my ear.

"Yes?" I answered weakly.

"Why'd you do this?" he voice sounded just as weak and shaky as mine did. I heard him sniff and sigh. "There's no cure for this, you know. You are going to regret this."

"I know." I sniffed and wiped away another tears. "I'll never regret it Vincent, I love you."

I heard him sniff several times. "Are you crying?" I asked him with a smile on my face.

"N..no. I don't cry." He said in a stronger voice. "I'm on my way there, ok? Don't let those doctors take any more tests on you."

"Ok."

"And Amaya…?"

"Yeah."

"I love you too." He hung up before I could say anything else. I smiled as I hung up the phone and handed it back to Rena.

"Aww…what are you smiling about?" Rena grinned while poking my leg gently.

"Vincent said he loved me." My grin widened.

"I knew that a long time ago. Remember the phone conversation that I had with him and I told him everything. Well in return he told me everything. He told me he was pretty sure he was in love with you. Then he said that if I wanted to live I better not ever tell you that."

I rolled my eyes and laughed. A few minutes later the man himself was there. He wore a black T-shirt and pair of long black shorts with a silver stripe on them that I was positive were Trace's. I didn't feel the need to tell him this at the time. He walked right over to the other side of my bed and squatted down so he was close to my face.

"You'll feel a hundred percent better tomorrow. Chaos's toxins aren't effective for long." He brought a hand to my forehead then massaged my head gently with his slender fingers. I smiled up at him and he smiled back at me. He bent down and kissed my cheek. "I cannot believe you did this."

"I wasn't about to let you get away." I smiled up at him and laughed softly.

"Umm…I'm just gonna go now." Rena said picking up her purse. With a jingle of her keys she was out of sight. Vincent walked around to the other side of the bed and took the chair she left open. He scooted it as close to the bed as possible and stared down at me.

"Your mother is going to think I did this to you."

"I don't care what she thinks. What did she say to you that made you want to up and end this?" I asked reaching out and touching his face. He closed his eyes upon feeling my touch then opened them again.

"It doesn't matter now, does it?" He sighed and frowned for a second. He looked away and began speaking again.

"You're immortal now and you have Chaos's antigens in your blood. That's what makes it unidentifiable. Therefore you can't die of any disease or bleed to death because those antigens won't allow it. They are made to make sure they keep you alive no matter what. However you can still die if you drown or are hung or anything like that because Chaos is not inside you, he can't save you. So don't go off thinking you are superwoman." There he goes lecturing me again. I smiled and nodded at him.

"…and since you aren't getting any older, you may want to go ahead and go to California. Eventually you will have to quit the job once they notice you are not aging." He smirked at me.

"Yeah but I don't think I can even handle being away from you." I sighed and looked down at my hands.

"Amaya, you've been dependent on someone your whole life. I think it would be best for you to go off on your own for a while. Plus, this job was your dream, right? I couldn't live with myself thinking that I kept you from achieving your dream. Your mother brought this up to me with a harsh choice of words." He smiled slightly and began caressing my hair again.

"What possessed you to even take her phone call?" My body was starting to feel better already. I was slowly drifting off as Vincent continued to stroke my head. The last thing I heard him say was.

"I wanted to convince her to accept me."


	29. Blissful Times For Now

**Apartment 102**

**Blissful Times for Now **

Vincent brought me home from the hospital around noon of the next day after nearly getting himself kicked out again and almost sent to jail. The doctor had barely stepped into the room before he jumped up from the chair and vehemently demanded that they release me at once. I guess secluding himself inside that tiny apartment for so long caused him to forget how to behave in a hospital.

I laid on the couch with my legs over Vincent's lap watching him play a shooting game on the new Xbox 360 he had bought for _me_ as an early birthday present, but had been the only one who'd got to play it. For a natural gunslinger, he seemed to be sucking pretty hard at it. I laughed out loud as his character fell to the ground dead. He turned his head sharply and glared at me. I stuck my tongue out at him and lifted one of my legs to gently knee him in the stomach. He sat down his controller on my coffee table and turned back to me.

"You must be feeling better." He brought a pale hand to my forehead and made a face that suggested he was happy with the results. He pinched my cheek afterwards and stood from the couch.

"Will you run to Taco Bell?" I asked looking at his back as he walked into the kitchen.

"I hate Taco Bell." I heard his deep voice reply from the kitchen. I then heard cabinets opening and shutting and the fridge as well. He then appeared in the doorway again. "What about White Castle?"

"No! They suck! I want Taco Bell. Didn't you say you loved me? If you love me you'll go to Taco Bell and get me a chicken quesadilla with extra cheese. And if they don't put extra cheese on it you'll come home and grate some cheese, put it on in and heat it up in the microwave for 35 seconds. Oh and if you really really loved me you'd chop up some jalapenos into little bitty bits and sprinkle them inside it." I sat up and grinned at him over the back of the couch. He raised an eyebrow and looked at me like I had lost my mind.

"I'm going to White Castle." He walked past me and grabbed his keys off of the coffee table. He glanced down at me to catch me pouting up at him. He said nothing more and was gone. Not even fifteen minutes later I heard him come back into the apartment. I chose not to look at him because I was honestly pissed about the food situation. I want a damn quesadilla.

I heard the microwave beep and Yume barking. I then heard Vincent telling her to be quiet. I drug myself off of the couch and walked into the kitchen. I gasped at what I saw. Vincent was indeed chopping jalapenos into little pieces and putting them inside my quesadilla! He went to Taco Bell! I tacked him from behind with a hug.

"Careful." He said holding his hand with the knife in it away from me.

"Why?" I asked. "Neither one of us can bleed to death."

"Both of us still feel pain." He retorted as he continued finished placing the pieces of jalapenos into my quesadilla. He turned to me and handed me the plate. I grinned at him and stood on my tippy toes with my lips puckered. He obviously got the hint as I felt his soft lips on mine.

"Thanks, you sweet love muffin." I still had a grin plastered on my face.

"You're welcome, you sour fruit cake." He said receiving a punch in the gut. I couldn't help but laugh a little. That phrase sounded so funny coming from him.

∞∞∞

Eight days later and it was my birthday! Believe it or not I had class on this day and was totally ticked about it. I would have just skipped but there was a huge exam in one class and vital notes in the other.

Lunaz and I sat at the lunch table alone while Rena was off talking on the phone to someone. She had one of those mischievous grins on her face that got everyone into so much trouble.

"I wonder what she's talking about." I said eating my flimsy French fries.

"Yeah I wonder what Vincent wanted. Oops…" she covered her mouth and then stuffed food into it. "I mean uh…"

"She's talking to Vincent? What are they planning? She better not put crazy ideas in his head. If she says something stupid to him he's gonna get pissed at me. It's my birthday and I'd rather him not be pissed off at me today."

Lunaz stayed silent as if she didn't want to spill anymore little secrets.

Later on that evening when I came home from my last class I noticed a different vehicle in the parking lot. It was a gorgeous red sports car that I knew must have been pretty pricey. I wondered what person at these apartments was affording stuff like that.

I entered the building and walked down the hall to my apartment. I opened up the door to find the place immaculate. Aww…did Vincent clean?! I carried my books all the way back into my room to keep from cluttering the clean living room. I made it halfway down the hall when I felt an arm wrap around me from behind and another hand cover my mouth.

"Surprise." A deep voice murmured into my ear. I felt like I was literally melting into his arms. I heard a slight jingle and saw that he was holding a car key in his hand. "You wouldn't happen to have noticed something new parked outside, would you have?" He spun me around and gave me a small smile.

"Vincent you didn't…"

He nodded and his smile widened. I took this moment to admire this rare sort of smile on his face. It was odd seeing him smile like this, teeth showing and all. I didn't think it would be possibly that little Amaya Arai could make the almighty brooder Vincent Valentine happy again. But I guess I had.

I squealed with excitement and threw my arms around his neck. He lifted me off my feet and swung me around. One of my feet kicked the wall leaving a black mark from my shoe.

"Shit…" I cursed.

"Oh well." Vincent muttered. "Want to go for a ride?"

I nodded eagerly and took the key from his hand. I literally ran out of my apartment and into the hall, down the stairs and out of the building. Vincent struggled to keep up, but did so with a slight grin on his face. I quickly unlocked the car door and got inside. I took a deep breath of the new car scent and squealed again. Vincent knocked on the window as if to tell me to unlock his door too. I did so and he got inside.

"Vincent I really don't know what to say. I know I'm definitely going to rub this is my mom's face." I laughed and he chuckled softly.

"I owe you a lot, Amaya. You'll never understand all that you've done for me." We leaned towards each other and shared a small peck.

"Woo hoo!!" I started up the car and slowly reversed it and pulled out of the parking lot. "Where to?"

"Let's go all the way to the riverfront." He said relaxing against the seat. He even put his seat back and unbuttoned the top button of his black shirt. He stared out of the window during most of the ride while I blared the radio admiring the system the car had. The riverfront was a good thirty five minute drive from the apartments. Being that it was only eight o'clock there was still some traffic so that didn't help us get there any faster. But when we finally did I parked nicely and we both got out and sat on the rock wall by the river. I scooted towards Vincent and climbed into his lap. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face into my neck.

"Happy Birthday, by the way. You may as well call yourself twenty today. I don't think the anti aging effect happens right away." He said I felt his breath on my neck as he spoke. Though it was pretty warm outside, my body shook with a chill. Vincent must have felt me shake as he pulled me closer and held me tighter.

"I'm so glad you finally gave in." I giggled.

He sighed. "What else could I do?"

"Mmnnmm." I said shrugging. "Be alone for the rest of your life. At one time you told me that's what you wanted."

"Right now all I want is you." He kissed my neck and made a trail of kissed up to the side of my head.

"Well, you've got me. You had me at hello…or…what was the first thing you ever said to me?" All I could remember from the first meetings with Vincent was his dirty glares.

"I asked you what you were doing. It was when you nearly gave me heart failure bursting into the laundry room and flipping on that bright light. I remember quite clearly. Back then I was suspicious that you were some sort of journalist or reporter trying to get a vampire story."

I laughed out loud and turned to him. His crimson eyes put off a glow in the darkness. His lips turned up in a slight smile.

"What if I had been one?"

"I would have let Chaos attack you." I pouted at this response, but he quickly erased that pout by kissing my lips. I turned around in his lap so we were facing each other. Vincent dipped me backwards and I screamed out thinking he was going to let me fall into the river. He chuckled and pulled me close to him again.

"You loser."

He shook his head. "I'm always a winner with you by my side."

∞∞∞

After we came back to the apartment I went straight to the bathtub. I smelt like outdoors. Vincent took a shower in his own apartment but was done way before I was. I put on a sexy little black night gown and a pair of black panties and walked into my bedroom to see him already lying in my bed with the sheets pulled up to his waist. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and I wasn't really sure if he was wearing pants either. He gave me a seductive smile right away and motioned for me to come over with his index finger. I giggled and turned my face away shyly as I came closer to him. He grabbed me by my waist and sat me over him so I was straddling him. I felt his fingers fumbling with the mesh trim at the end of my night gown. As he raised it up, I raised my arms to make the job easier for him. My cheeks burned as I realized this was the first time Vincent had ever seen my chest. I had wore my corset the whole time during our first time. They weren't much, but they were still my private property. I quickly covered them by crossing my arms.

Vincent chuckled. "Don't be shy. You're beautiful." He gently removed my arms from across my chest and proceeded to take each one in his hands and massage them lightly. I moaned softly as teased my nipples with his thumbs. He then slid his hands down my sides and slipped his fingers under the straps of my underwear. I had to scoot back a little so that he was able to pull them off without too much trouble. He then tossed the sheet aside to reveal that he was indeed naked underneath it. I tried not to stare at his rather large swollen member. He was even wearing protection already.

"Come on…" he whispered. "Take me however you wish, it's your birthday. I recall having my way with you on mine." A whole new shade of red tainted my cheeks. Seeing that I was going to be too shy to take charge of him, he pulled me towards him by my hips. I rose up slightly so that I was on my knees on the bed and Vincent positioned himself under me and pulled me down onto him. I still wasn't used to something so big after being with Trace so many times so again this time it was slightly painful. But the first movement of his hips instantly replaced pain with pleasure. My shyness quickly faded away and I took charge of him like he wanted me to. I grabbed his shoulders as I began to thrust harder and harder against him. Vincent had a tight grip on my hips and met each one of my thrusts with one of his own. For a while I was the only one making any noise. But as soon as I picked up my pace, feeling my peak coming near Vincent started to grunt and moan as well. However his weren't near as loud as mine.

Then…I heard him say it again. "I love you." He murmured. "Oh…God do I love you, Amaya."

Right after I heard him say that my body was overwhelmed with a sensation that only Vincent could have provided for me. "I love you more."

Not too longer after I came, Vincent rolled me over on my back and started up his own power stroking. After he was finished he let himself collapse on top of me breathing heavily and trembling slightly. I rapped my arms around him and rubbed up and down the smooth skin of his back and ran my fingers through his slightly damp hair. He sighed and turned his head to the side, resting his cheek against my chest.

After a few good minutes I heard his breathing even out and a few very tiny snores here and there. I smiled to myself. Well, at least he didn't run off afterwards. I let him sleep for a while before I squirmed out from underneath him. We were completely naked on the bed with no covers over us! He didn't even stir as I did so and threw the blankets over us. I snuggled against him again and fell asleep.


	30. Leaving 102

**Apartment 102**

**Leaving 102**

I woke up the next morning to the sound of my loud house phone ringing. The only person who would call my house phone was my mother. The person who set the line up. Vincent groaned and mumbled a soft "No." as I tried to pull myself out of his grip.

"Vincent, wake up. That's my mom calling." I said as loud as I could in my sleep clouded voice. He didn't open his eyes but made a small grunt as a response along with letting me go.

"Hello?" I said as I picked up the phone.

"That man is a murderer." My mother said. I sighed loudly and rolled my eyes.

"He is not."

"I spoke with the manager's wife. She saw everything. That man killed her husband and your boyfriend's best friend. I am coming there with the police."

"Ma, don't! You're ruining everything! Why don't you just butt out! I'm an adult now!" I yelled. I felt a bare hand rest on my shoulder and turned to see Vincent who was now sitting up in bed.

My mother hung up the phone and I slammed it down on its holder.

"What's wrong?" he asked me as soon as I began to cry.

"My mom's on her way here with the police. I guess she has proof you shot George and Kenji." I said softly. Vincent shot out of the bed completely naked and ran out of my room. He then returned a few seconds later, slightly red in the face, and started putting on some clothes. Despite the horrible predicament we were in right now I couldn't help but laugh.

Vincent glared at me as he quickly snatched on his black pants. That man could zip and button clothes so fast it was amazing. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times before putting on his bandana. He took his gun out of my closet and ran off. I dressed myself as well and stood in the living room waiting for my mom to show up.

About a half our later I heard knocking at my door. I opened the door and was almost knocked down as four police officers barged into my apartment with their guns out.

"Where is he?" one of them asked me.

"I don't know."

"Miss, we don't have time for games. Mr. Valentine is a very dangerous man." Another said as they explored my entire apartment. Another group of police had kicked in Vincent's door and were raiding his apartment. I turned around and glared at my mother who was standing with her arms crossed and a triumphant smile on her lips. That was the first time in my life where I wanted to just draw back my hand and slap her but I resisted.

∞∞

The police eventually left the apartments after not being able to find even a trace of Vincent. Later on that night I called his cell phone. I sat in my bedroom fully dressed incase I would be able to meet him somewhere. I even had my hair done up in a cute bun and had make up on.

"Hello?" My nerves instantly settled when I heard his calm smooth voice.

"Vincent, where are you?" I asked.

"I…don't know…" he said. I could hear cars zooming by in the background.

"Are you ok? Do you want me to come find you?" I stood up and grabbed my purse before he could even answer.

"No…I…I'm going to lose control of Chaos soon." His voice suddenly sounded weak and unlike him.

"Vincent…this is dangerous."

"It's not for me. Amaya, just stay where you are eventually I will return. I will call you tomorrow. Goodbye and I love you."

"I love you too." I said before the line went dead. My heart sank as I began to jump on all of the worse possible conclusions. Wherever Vincent was, as soon as he turns into Chaos someone is going to call the police and they'll try to capture him and send him off to a science lab somewhere and he'll spend the rest of his life being tortured and experimented upon by mad scientist! I tried to calm myself down. No, that won't happen. The police couldn't possibly even get their hands on Vincent while he was in Chaos's form. Not without dying. I then began to stop worrying on Vincent's behalf and thinking about everyone else. I remember Vincent telling me that Chaos gets his thrills from killing people. Something told me Chaos would be getting his thrill tonight.

∞∞

Vincent didn't call me the next day in fact a full week had passed now and he hadn't called me. I carried on with my school work as if I had much of a choice. Graduation was coming close and I couldn't afford to let myself fail now.

Tonight was Friday and I was happy to be home and not have class tomorrow. I parked my new car next to my old one and got out to see Vincent's car was gone now. When he had first left he didn't take his car and now it was gone. He had been here…

I hurried into my apartment and looked everywhere to see if he had left a note or anything but couldn't find anything. Nothing was misplaced and my cabinets were still full of food so I knew he hadn't been inside. I sighed loudly and put all my stuff away. I threw myself on the couch and contemplating just calling him. Ironically as soon as I decided I would call him my phone rang. I answered it before the first full ring sounded.

"Hello?"

"Amaya I moved out of the apartments…"

"Oh…well where are you? I want to see you." I asked. My lease on my own apartment would be up in a while because I only intended to live here two years anyway.

"I don't know exactly where I am going to move to…I'm staying in a hotel now. Amaya…I'm going to have to leave the state."

I swallowed hard. "Let's go to California together."

"That's a little further than I imagined." He let out a soft chuckle. I smiled at the sound of his laughter. It made me so happy hearing him laughing.

"I love you. I don't like not knowing where you are and when I'll see you." I said after a moment of silence.

"Don't worry. In a while you'll know exactly where I am and we'll see each other everyday. So…I let you go, ok?"

I sighed. "Ok." We hung up at the same time and I sighed again sinking into my couch.

∞∞∞

I don't know how, but I made it through the next three weeks with only brief contact with Vincent. He'd leave a text every once in a while or call at odd times that I couldn't get to my phone and not answer when I called back. He was really making me start worrying if he was actually planning on being with me or not.

Despite my worries about him, graduation was in two days an my main worry was getting through that. Because I went to a small two year community college, the ceremony wouldn't be a huge deal, but it was still graduation and people were making a bigger deal out of it than it really was. We didn't even get caps or gowns, but were just expected to dress formally.

Today was Friday again and our class was a short ten minute class. It was the last day of it and all the professor did was hand back all of the term papers we had done throughout the semester and wish us good luck with our futures. So after class Rena, Lunaz , and I went shopping for our graduation outfits.

"So what's up with Vincent?" Rena asked. "Reno told me he heard he got locked up by the cops."

My heart sank. Maybe that's where he was. Maybe he kept telling me he didn't know where he was because he didn't want to tell me he was in jail! Rena seemed to notice how tense I became and put her arm around my shoulder.

"I'm sure he could bust outta there any time he wanted to though, right? They can't keep the almighty Vincent down. Girl, I can't believe he bought you a new car for your birthday. You're soooo lucky."

"A new car?" Lunaz asked looking at the two of us. "He doesn't have a job though…"

I didn't feel like getting into the whole story of how he was a Turk and all about getting money from the organization so I just gave her the weird look she always got from me when asking a dumb question.

Shopping was always kind of therapeutic for me and as soon as we got inside our favorite shop, my worries dissolved and I started to have hope that Vincent was doing just fine and I would see him soon like he promised.

∞∞

Graduation day was just as stressful as I had imagined. My mother planned a dinner at my apartment and was freaking out on me for not having my place cleaned. With my two brothers hanging around like monkeys there was no way this apartment could have stayed clean anyways. I was relieved that my aunt did not come to dinner. I still hadn't made a final decision whether I was going to go with her or not.

The ceremony itself was indeed pretty small. Out of all the students I know attended here for two years, there weren't nearly half as much that were graduating. Rena lived on the edge of not graduation through all four semesters. While standing in line waiting to walk on the stage and get my certificate, I noticed a tall, dark man standing in the doorway. He wore a fedora hat tilted so far down you could not see his eyes and had on a black tux, black vest underneath, black shirt and black tie. I then looked down and saw those dreadful gold boots. Suddenly the man lifted his head and I could see those crimson eyes all the way from where I stood. He lifted the corner of his mouth in an attempt to smile and disappeared around the corner.

After the ceremony was over I quickly left the gymnasium where it was held and looked both ways down the hall. "Vincent?" I called down the nearly empty hallway. Everyone else was still in the gym taking pictures and gathering.

"Vin…" I spun around and bumped right into his chest. He wrapped his arms around me.

"I'm so proud of you." He whispered to me. "I can't stay, but when you get done here meet me at the riverfront." He pulled away from me and glanced down at me.

I stood on my tip toes so that he wouldn't have to bend too far down to kiss me.

"Woooo!!" Rena came up behind Vincent and gave him a friendly slap on the ass. I wanted to be like Hey! I haven't even got to slap his ass yet.

Vincent's eyes widened and he held on to me for dear life. Rena just giggled and then punched him in the shoulder. He gave me a look like what on Earth is her problem. I just laughed and shook my head. Rena had always been the handsy type.

∞∞

After the ceremony was over and I saw my mom and brothers off, I got into my new car and drove to the river front to meet Vincent. He was sitting on the rock wall alone facing the river. He wasn't wearing that hat anymore and his hair was flowing behind him gently in the wind. The sky looked beautiful as the sun set. He didn't turn around and face me until I was just inches behind him.

He smiled and stood up. "Get in your car and follow me."

"What?" I asked as he walked past me and got into his black car.

"Just get in your car."

I got into my car and followed his odd directions. I stayed so close behind him I almost rear ended him a few times. He kept break checking me as if he wanted me to ruin this brand new car. I followed him for what seemed like forever. And it was so hard keeping up with him. He drove at least ninety miles per hour the whole way. I just knew I was going to be the one pulled over by a cop if we saw one. Luckily I had a full tank of gas. Apparent Vincent hadn't, because an hour and a half into our trip he stopped at a gas station. I got out with him.

"Where are we going? And how much further." I wined.

He gave me a mock pouty face. "Just wait. You'll see."

"Rena's having a graduation party tonight." I said.

"I guess you'll be missing it then." He smiled and me and gave me a short kiss before placing the gas pump into his car. He leaned against the car while he waited for the pump to fill his tank.

After another two hours in the car we finally came up to this big white house surrounded by a white picket fence. The roof was black and the trim around the windows was black. The front door was black along with the porch railing. Vincent was the first out of his car and walked over to me as I looked up at the gorgeous home.

"Who lives here? I thought you told me all your relatives were dead." I said as we walked up the curved side walk to the porch steps.

He chuckled softly. "We aren't visiting anyone."

"Then who lives here?" I asked him as we reached the front door. Vincent pulled a key out of his pocket and dangled it in front of my face.

"We could."


	31. I Have to Do This for MeThe End

**Apartment 102**

**I Have to Do This for Me…The End**

It doesn't take a genius to know what my answer was to Vincent's invitation. I was settled in to his new house faster than he was. I was now free from college and work, my aunt had been calling me, but I wasn't answering the phone. My house line was now cut off since I no longer lived in the apartments so I imagined my mom was trying to reach me from there, but wasn't succeeding. Today would mark the second week that I had been living in this house with Vincent. Life here with him was so blissful and I was just ready to give up everything else and spend the rest of eternity here with him. We were far out in the country so he could release Chaos any time he felt like it and he couldn't harm anyone except the deer that roamed the open fields. Killing a few deer every now and then satisfied Chaos's want to kill and actually in the long run it would help keep the deer population lower.

Tonight I was in the kitchen cooking dinner because we were expecting guests today. Lunaz, Cloud, Rena, and Reno were driving here to see us. They were going to spend the whole weekend out here with us. Our house had three bedrooms and Vincent and I shared one so we had two spare ones for our guests to stay in.

"Can I help you with anything?" Vincent asked as he suddenly appeared in the wooden doorframe. Our kitchen was huge and really gorgeous. I was surprised that the whole house wasn't dark and gloomy because that's the look Vincent usually went for. However our kitchen was very bright with light wooden counters and chairs with white counter tops and the top of the kitchen table was white with light wood legs that matched the chairs. There wasn't much decoration in here yet, but I would definitely get to that. Vincent's probably going to hate me for it, but I wanted some pink in here. He crept over to me and hovered over me for a while watching me make my famous Asian style stir fry.

"No offense Vince, but you really aren't the best cook." I smiled up at him and he frowned down at me.

"I can cook." He said brush past me and fixing himself a drink. I had to do a double take once I realized what he was about to drink.

"Vincent?! Since when have you been drinking vodka?!" I turned the flame on the stove down and put my hands on my hips as I watched him add a normal club soda to it.

"I'm going to need plenty of this to make it through this weekend." He took his glass and left the room. I stared at his retreating form in shock. After a while I heard the front door opening.

"Vinvin!! How dare you take our Maya away from us and bring her out here in the hills. What's wrong with you?" Rena teased just as I walked into the living room. Vincent just smiled. Yeah, he was right, he was going to need some vodka to survive this weekend. She then tackled him with a hug and moved on to do the same to me.

"We miss you girl!" Rena said. Reno finally made it into the door dragging two bags with him. I knew the larger one was Rena's and I don't know why she felt she needed so much there's nothing to do out here in the country but fish and chase stray cats.

Lunaz just grinned and gave me a short hug. "At least the house is really pretty."

"All thanks to this man." I said putting my arm around Vincent's waist. He leaned against me and I attempted to take a sip of his drink but he slung his arm back quickly spilling some on the dark blue carpet.

He sighed loudly and went to the kitchen to get some paper towels.

Rena sniffed the air. "I smell vodka! Is Vincent letting you drink!"

"No. It's his. Oh! Here let me show you guys your rooms. They aren't really put together that well yet…" I led my group of friends through the living room and around the corner to the staircase. We walked up the carpeted stairs and down the hall where I pointed out where the two bedrooms were and left the decision of who gets what room to them. I then came back downstairs to see Vincent spraying the carpet with cleaner stuff and wiping it with a paper towel.

"Are you drunk already?" I laughed at him. He threw the paper towel away and left the cleaning stuff sitting there as he stood and scooped me up into his arms.

"No." He gave me a short kiss before pulling away and taking the cleaning stuff back to the kitchen. Soon after that the group was back downstairs and I led them all to the kitchen so we could have dinner. After dinner we all gathered around the large TV in the living room to watch a movie. Rena and Reno spent the whole movie making out, Lunaz was too busy freaking out at all the scary parts, and Cloud was busy trying to calm her each time. Vincent and I shared the recliner. He was pretty into the movie and didn't pay me too much attention. By the time the credits started rolling Rena was dragging Reno off to their bedroom and Cloud and Lunaz were fast asleep on the couch.

"Should we wake them?" Vincent asked pointing in their direction.

I slid off of his lap and walked over to them. They both looked so peaceful that I couldn't wake them. Vincent followed me up the stairs and we went into our own bedroom. I noticed my cell phone was lit up indicating I might have missed a call or a text message. It was a missed call and the person left a voicemail. I called the voicemail and listened.

"Hello Amaya, its Aunt Meg." My heart stopped at that very moment. "I was just calling to make sure you still planned on coming. I've set a room up in my condo just for you and I can't wait until you see it. I've told everyone about you and they can't wait to meet you." She laughed softly. "They say any relative of mine would be a great asset to the team. Well I hope you get back to me soon. Bye bye."

Vincent automatically picked up the worried look on my face.

"What's wrong?" He asked. "That wasn't Trace was it? I told you to just let me finish…"

"No, Vincent. It was my aunt." I sighed loudly and sat at the end of our huge king sized bed. Vincent sat with me.

"Amaya… you know I'm always going to be here. Go on and do what you need to do. I'll be here supporting you." He said placing a hand on my back and stroking it lightly. I instantly started crying.

"How am I supposed to live without you? Even for a year? Tell me how?" I leaned into him and sobbed loudly into his chest. Vincent wrapped both arms around me and kissed the top of my head.

"You won't be living without me. You can call me every day. Teach me how to use a computer camera…thing and we can see each other that way. Amaya, I've told you before, you need this. You need the experience of being out on your own." He said squeezing me tighter.

Lunaz appeared in the doorway and slowly walked in. "Um…"

Vincent released me and looked over at my friend.

"Did I miss something?" Lunaz asked walking closer to me.

I tried my best to compose myself enough so I could speak. "My aunt called…I think I'm going to have to go to San Diego."

Lunaz gasped and turned to Vincent. He gave her a reassuring smile to show he wasn't upset. Rena, Reno, and Cloud made their way into our bedroom also and were filled in on the news.

"You gonna let your woman go, man?" Reno asked giving Vincent a soft punch on the shoulder. Vincent sighed.

"She needs to do this for her."

∞∞

Those words echoed in my head for the next few days. After all my friends left, it was just me and Vincent in the house again. And Yume of course. I still hadn't called my aunt, but tonight I planned to.

Vincent seemed distant this morning. He ate his breakfast quietly hardly even sending me a glance. He took his plate to the sink and I followed.

"You're awfully quiet." I commented to his back as he turned around and was heading towards the living room.

"What can I say?"

I sighed loudly. Vincent Valentine has always been such a confusing man. My theory was that he was the one confused by his own feelings and emotions. He has let such emotions grow so foreign to him that now he doesn't even know how to deal with them. I decided to leave him alone and let him deal with his own conflicting emotions. I sat in our study room and played internet games and chatted with Rena and Lunaz for the most part of the day. I finally mustered up the nerve to call Aunt Meg.

Hearing her voice on the other end almost made me start crying again, but I kept it together.

"Yeah, Aunt Meg? It's me, Amaya. I decided to…" I looked up and saw Vincent in the doorway staring at me. "I've decided that…"

Vincent nodded as if to say go ahead and say it.

"I'm coming to San Diego." I finally said.

"Oh thank goodness. You were beginning to worry me a little bit. Manami told me you were getting rather close to a man there and were reluctant to leave." She said.

I sighed as I felt the tension leave. "Yes…his name is Vincent. I really don't want to have to leave him, but both he…and I feel as if this is something I need to do for myself. Because you know I've always wanted to work there."

Aunt Meg chuckled. "Why doesn't he move with you?"

"Uh…it's complicated…" I looked over at him and smiled. He left the doorway sat at the computer desk.

"I see…well…I will send your plane ticket in the mail very soon. I can't wait to see you, dear."

"Thanks, Aunt Meg."

"You're welcome. Bye now."

I hung up with her and instead of bawling and crying I could only smile. Vincent turned to me. "Teach me how to use this thing."

∞∞

It took me a whole week to teach Vincent how to master a computer and all the communication devices. We even practiced by sitting at opposite ends of the house while I was on my lap top and he was on the desktop and chatting with our webcams. My plane ticket arrived in the mail after that week and the reality hit that I would be leaving the next day.

We both lie awake in bed after hours of love making. "This is going to be hard." I cuddled closer to him and leaned his head against mine.

"You have no idea how hard I'm..it's going to be…" he cleared his throat and coughed a few times. I laughed out loud.

"No way did you just say that."

"Say what?" He kissed my cheek several times and crawled on top of me again as if to start another round. "What did I say hmm?" he didn't even let me answer before pressing his lips against mine in such an aggressive way that it was turning me on again.

"…so unlike you…" I managed to get out between the kisses.

"You have no idea what I'm like." He whispered before slowly finding his place inside me again. We didn't stop until it was nearing the break of dawn. I slept for maybe two hours and then had to get up and start getting ready. My bags were already packed so I didn't have much to gather besides my hygiene products. Vincent loaded my bags in the trunk of his car then stuck his head in the door.

"Are you coming?" He didn't say it in a way that was rushing but it sound was uneasy coming from him. I tried not to let it get to me as I nodded and hurried towards the door. He wore his normal black buttoned down shirt with loose black pants. He wore a black glove and his black shoes as well. He skipped the bandana today though, which was nice. His hair was pulled back in a low pony tail with only a few chunks of bangs in his face. He shut it and locked it after me and we were on our way. Since he chose to move us out here so far from the city we were in for a long drive.

We both got in the car and Vincent took off. Earlier I thought I heard him groaning in pain, which meant he was probably straining against Chaos. And now he just looked pathetically ill. "Want me to drive, sweetheart?"

He shook his head no. He pulled off and before long we were on the highway. I leaned my head up against the window looking outside. It was storming now. I watched as bolts of lightning appeared in the distance. The music was playing softly. The only other sound was the wind shield wipers sweeping fiercely back and forth.

"Vincent…I'm not sure I can do this."

"You're doing it." He said without even looking at me. He pushed harder on the gas and we began flying past cars on the wet roads. I was always sure I was going to die with him driving, but he managed to get us from point A to point B all in one piece. I managed to fall asleep during his chaotic driving and when I woke up we were entering the airport parking lot. We got out and Vincent grabbed my bags for me. I expected him to carry them in the building but he stopped right where he was.

"Vincent?"

"I'm…I can't go in there." He said quietly. He placed my bag on my arm for me and stuck the handle of my large suitcase towards me. I took it and pulled it closer to me.

"Ok…" I tried to stop it, I bit my lip, closed my eyes and really _tried_ to hold the tears back, but they fell like waterfalls from each of my eyes. I threw my bag down and let go of the handle of my other bag and dove into Vincent's arms. "Don't let me go, Vincent."

"I have to." He murmured back to me. "It will be ok. We'll talk to each other every day." He said in the softest, gentlest tone I was sure this man could muster.

"I need to hold you, and kiss you, and…" he stopped me by placing his long slender index finger on my lips.

"We are both going to stay on this planet forever. There is plenty of time for that. Go do what you need to do for you. Then come back here and do what you need to do for me." He gave me a naughty grin before kissing me softly. "I love you."

"I love you too and I'm going to miss you so much."

He squeezed me in a hug. "Be good. Don't do anything stupid. I don't want you drinking at all. Do you hear me?" He asked instantly going into lecture mode.

I nodded.

He smiled and gave me another kiss. "No blind dates either. If it comes right down to it I'll bring Chaos up there and destroy the entire city."

I laughed softly. "Don't worry. The only thing I'm going to be doing up there is working and calling you."

We hugged one last time and shared one last kiss before I looked down at my watch and almost went into a panic. "Oh! I really have to go."

"Bye, Amaya. I love you." He said giving me a short wave and a small grin.

"I love _you_, Vincent Valentine!" I yelled as I ran with backwards with both of my bags. The act nearly sent me falling flat on my rear but I managed. He stood by his car waving at me until we could no longer see each other. I missed him already and contemplated just running back, but I kept walking. I had to do this for me.

While on the plane flashbacks of my times with Vincent kept hitting me.

_What are you doing here?_

_I'm doing laundry_

_∞_

_I meant __**talk**__ as in actual conversation!_

_Then I guess I do not agree to those terms_

_∞_

_I'll take you out to dinner (wince)_

_∞_

_Everyone needs friends…_

_How can I trust you….?_

_∞_

_…vampire neighbors…._

_Don't call him that!_

_That's what he is! Are you that stupid!?_

_Do __**not**__ yell at her like that…Don't you __**ever**__ call her stupid…_

_∞_

_I love you…_

_…don't say that…_

_….__I'm__ no good for you…forgive me…_

_∞_

_Spill my blood, Trace, torture me I love it._

_∞_

_Happy New Year!_

_Happy New Year, Amaya…._

_…Stay with me forever…I'm drunk don't listen to me…you need to go…what am I saying? I want you to be happy_

_∞_

_Are you crying?_

_No… __Amaya?_

_Yeah_

_I love you too_

_∞∞_

I smiled at all the memories he and I shared and I was excited to find out all the memories we'd make in the future. I'm so glad I chose to live across from the vampire in Apartment 102.

**∞The End∞**


End file.
